Considering the special importance of Der Zor in the history of Armenian Genocide, Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia Aram I declared the desert as a place of all-Armenian pilgrimage back in 2002.
The initiative received support by the Armenian Apostolic Church.

A special inspection was created on the territory Der-Zor, in the neighborhood of Markat and other areas, with the Great House of Cilicia Archimandrite Vahan Berbeyan being appointed as inspector. Pilgrimage-related issues are dealt with by a committee consisting of Lebanese-Armenian community representatives.

Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia Aram I calls on Armenians to attend Der-Zor to commemorate the victims of Genocide.

Der-Zor: a desert in Syria which became a major destination point in the history of Armenian Genocide.

The 1915-23 Armenian Genocide in Ottoman Empire 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.