Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou laid a wreath on Saturday, April 24 at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Athens to commemorate the 106th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, Greek City Times reports.

Immediately afterwards, the President said regarding the Armenian Genocide:

“One hundred and six years have passed since the beginning of the systematic extermination of one and a half million Armenians during the last years of the Ottoman Empire.

“It is a tragedy that indelibly sealed the first decades of the 20th century, a genocide that crushed a thriving Christian nucleus in the southern Caucasus and almost wiped out an ancient people.

“Today, we unite with the Armenian communities in Greece and around the world to honor the memory of the victims, but also the strength, dignity and confidence with which the Armenians resisted the alienation and subjugation.

“And we reaffirm with them our commitment to a world free of discrimination and persecution, where everyone can feel safe.”

In the same genocide (1913-1923), Ottoman authorities exterminated up to a million Greeks and half a million Assyrians in their mad drive to create a “Turkey for the Turks,” irrespective of indigenous communities.

On April 24, 1915, a large group of Armenian intellectuals was rounded up and assassinated in Constantinople by the Ottoman government. Today, on April 24, Armenians worldwide are commemorating the 106th anniversary of the Genocide which continued until 1923. Some three dozen countries, hundreds of local government bodies and international organizations have so far recognized the killings of 1.5 million Armenians as Genocide. Turkey denies to this day.