Nicosia youth rally to mark Armenian Genocide anniversary

April 22, 2019 - 17:43 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - The Committee of Memory for the Armenian Genocide is organising a youth rally in Nicosia next week to commemorate the 104th anniversary of the 1915 killings, Cyprus Mail reports.

The group announced that it will commemorate the 104th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide with a youth march on April 24 in Nicosia.

The march will start from the parking lot on Makarios Avenue, across from the Zena Kanther building. Participants will walk up to Armenia Avenue where they will join the rest of the community members and all will march to the monument of the Armenian Genocide in the grounds of the Armenian church. A memorial service will take place there.

Armenians commemorate the mass killings on April 24 because on that date in 1915 a group of Armenian intellectuals was rounded up and assassinated in Constantinople by the Ottoman government. On April 24, Armenians worldwide will be commemorating the 104th 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.

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.