Catholicos Karekin II, together with senior clergy of the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, visited the Tsitsernakaberd Memorial Complex on April 24 to commemorate the victims of the Armenian Genocide.

Catholicos Karekin II laid a wreath at the memorial complex, followed by a prayer service for the victims of the Armenian Genocide, who are canonized as martyrs by the Armenian Apostolic Church.

The Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin also published Karekin II’s statement on the occasion of the 111th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.

“Today, in Armenia and in diaspora communities, we commemorate our holy martyrs of the Armenian Genocide carried out in the Ottoman Empire, who became immortal by keeping alive in their souls the love for Christ and for the homeland.

April 24 symbolically encompasses the collective suffering of our people, in which are concentrated the memories of one and a half million martyred Armenians, our compatriots deprived of their homeland and forced into exile, our monasteries and churches subjected to cultural genocide, and our destroyed settlements. However, that tragedy did not break the spirit of our nation. Our people survived the genocide, revived new life everywhere, and reestablished the independent statehood of Armenia.

April 24 is a day of vow, intertwined with the demand of our worldwide nation, which is free from hostility and hatred, and is aimed at restoring justice and truth and preventing the denial of the atrocities of the genocide,” Catholicos Karekin II said in his message.