Hundreds of Armenians marched through their country’s capital to mark the anniversary of the Armenian Genocide on Sunday.
Mourners gathered in Yerevan’s central square, carried lit torches, burned Turkish and Azerbaijani flags and walked through the streets in a procession accompanied by an orchestra.
The event takes place every year, and it ends with participants carrying torches to the Tsitsernakaberd Armenian Genocide Memorial Complex.
In the centre of the complex is an eternal flame meant to represent the 1.5 million Armenians that historians estimate were killed during the genocide.
The following day, 24 April, is known as Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day, and it marks the same day in 1915 when 250 intellectuals were rounded up and killed in Ottoman Turkey.
While Turkey concedes that many died in that era, the country has rejected the term genocide, saying the death toll is inflated and the deaths resulted from civil unrest during the Ottoman Empire’s collapse.
Related Content from Alaturka News
The Armenian Allegation of Genocide: The Issue and the Facts
The truth demands that every side of a story be told. Fundamental freedoms enshrined in the U.S. Constitution protect those who choose to challenge the Armenian view.
FACT 1: The Armenian deaths do not constitute genocide.
The Armenians took arms against their own government. Their violent political aims, not their race, ethnicity, or religion, rendered them subject to relocation.
FACT 2: Armenian losses were few in comparison to the over 2.5 million Muslim dead from the same period.
Reliable statistics demonstrate that slightly less than 600,000 Anatolian Armenians died during the war period of 1912-22. Armenians indeed suffered terrible mortality. But one must likewise consider the number of dead Muslims and Jews. The statistics tell us that more than 2.5 million Anatolian Muslims also perished. Thus, the years 1912-1922 constitute a horrible period for humanity, not just for Armenians.
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