Cypriot president condemns Armenian Genocide

April 24, 2017 - 12:36 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - The Cypriot government and president Nicos Anastasiades on Monday, April 24 strongly condemned the Armenian Genocide by Turkey on the 102nd anniversary of the event, Cyprus Mail reports.

In a written statement, government spokesman Nicos Christodoulides said the Genocide was an abominable crime and a shameful chapter in the history of humanity and stressed that “the government expresses its full solidarity and sympathy with the people of Armenia and reiterates its full support for the recognition of the Armenian Genocide by the international community.”

The date of April 24, 1915 represents the day that Ottoman authorities rounded up, arrested, and deported several hundred Armenian intellectuals and community leaders, the majority of whom were eventually murdered. 1.5 million people were murdered between 1915-1923.

Anastasiades, alongside a number of world leaders and government heads visited Tsitsernakaberd - the Genocide memorial in the Armenian capital city of Yerevan - on April 24, 2015 on the centennial of the mass killings.

The Armenian Genocide

The Armenian Genocide (1915-23) was the deliberate and systematic destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during and just after World War I. It was characterized by massacres and deportations, involving forced marches under conditions designed to lead to the death of the deportees, with the total number of deaths reaching 1.5 million.

The majority of Armenian Diaspora communities were formed by the Genocide survivors.

Present-day Turkey denies the fact of the Armenian Genocide, justifying the atrocities as “deportation to secure Armenians”. Only a few Turkish intellectuals, including Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk and scholar Taner Akcam, speak openly about the necessity to recognize this crime against humanity.

The Armenian Genocide was recognized by Uruguay, Russia, France, Lithuania, Italy, 45 U.S. states, Greece, Cyprus, Lebanon, Argentina, Belgium, Austria, Wales, Switzerland, Canada, Poland, Venezuela, Chile, Bolivia, the Vatican, Luxembourg, Brazil, Germany, the Netherlands, Paraguay, Sweden, Venezuela, Slovakia, Syria, Vatican, as well as the European Parliament and the World Council of Churches.