Yerevan hosts march in memory of Armenian Genocide

On the Day of Memory of victims of the Armenian Genocide, Armenia and foreign countries hold mourning events, and the central event among them was the large mourning march in Yerevan to the memorial to the victims of the Armenian Genocide in Tsitsernakaberd.

Residents of Armenia, Nagorno-Karabakh and representatives of the Armenian Diaspora traditionally mark April 24 as the Day of Memory of victims of the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire in 1915-1923.

Today, early in the morning, the mourning march was started in Yerevan. At 11:00 a.m., President Serzh Sargsyan with his wife, Prime Minister Tigran Sarkisyan, Speaker Ovik Abramyan, MPs, government officials, and representatives of foreign diplomatic missions accredited in Armenia came to the memorial in Tsitsernakaberd to pay tribute to the memory of victims of the Armenian Genocide, of the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports.

In the presence of the President, Prime Minister, Speaker and other top-ranking government officials, Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II chanted the mourning service on innocent victims killed in 1915.

The memorial has been visited by tens of thousands of people, and the march to the memorial continues, and people lay flowers and wreaths at the Eternal Flame. The number of participants of the memorial march includes middle-aged and elderly people and a lot of young people.

According to the information of Shavarsh Kocharyan, Acting Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, the process of international recognition of the Armenian Genocide is underway.

Ambassadors of different countries also took part in ceremonies in Armenia.

"Every year on this day, I pay tribute to the memory of the innocent victims of the Armenian Genocide. I share the grief of the Armenian people," said Bruno Scapini, Italian Ambassador to Armenia.

When asked about the possibility of recognition of the Armenian Genocide by Turkey, the Ambassador has stated that if the country is moving towards democracy, "it has to admit that crime".

In his brief interview to journalists, John Heffern, US Ambassador to Armenia, has emphasized that US President Barack Obama has a clear position with regard to the problem.

"He calls the massacre of 1.5 million Armenians one of the worst events of the 20th century," the US Ambassador said.

On April 23, Yerevan hosted a torchlight march which was attended by many thousands of people and which was dated to the 98th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide in Ottoman Turkey in 1915.

The event began with burning of Turkish flag at the Opera and Ballet Theatre named after Spendiarov and ended in Tsitsernakaberd, where the marchers laid flowers at the monument to the victims of the Armenian Genocide.

The marchers were singing national songs and carrying in their hands Armenian flags, crosses and torches, and the torches' flames were lit from the burned flag of Turkey. And during the march, candles were lit in the windows of the houses in Yerevan as a sign of solidarity.

''My grandfather never told anyone about what the Turks did to his family. Just once, he told his eldest son before he went to the battlefield how the Turks killed his father and took away his beautiful mother on a horse, shouting that she would give birth to their beautiful children,'' said Naira Martikyan, a resident of Armenia.

According to her story, during all his life, her father was searching for his mother Goar; however, he did not succeeded in his search. 8-year-old Minas and 4-year-old Ashot escaped the genocide and together with other Armenian children moved to Hungary, where they were brought up in an orphan home.