THOUSANDS OF ARMENIANS MARK ANNIVERSARY OF 1915 MASS KILLINGS
Agence France Presse — English
April 23, 2007 Monday 9:16 PM GMT
Thousands of Armenians marched through the streets of Yerevan Monday
on the eve of the 92nd anniversary of the killing of hundreds of
thousands of their compatriots by the Ottoman empire.
More than 15,000 marchers carried 2,000 flaming torches and candles
to commemorate the killings in 1915, which many countries have termed
genocide.
After burning a Turkish flag on Yerevan’s Freedom Square, the
participants marched to a monument to the victims of the killings,
where they laid wreaths and flowers.
Many carried flags from the 22 countries that have deemed the killings
as genocide, including Canada, Poland and Switzerland.
The march was dominated by students and members of youth groups,
and many from Armenia’s widespread diaspora flew into Yerevan to take
part in the event.
"There are hardly any people left today who survived the genocide, and
every year their numbers grow fewer and fewer. It’s up to the young
people to keep the memory of the genocide alive," Oshin Pirumyan,
who came from Beirut for the event, told AFP.
Armenians say up 1.5 million died in orchestrated killings during
the final years of the Ottoman Empire.
Turkey strongly rejects claims of a genocide, saying that 300,000
Armenians and at least an equal number of Turks were killed in civil
strife in 1915-1917 when the Christian Armenians, backed by Russia,
rose up against the Ottoman Empire.