Armenia the one and a half million Armenians murdered recalled this on Monday under the Ottoman Empire between 1915 and 1923, in a genocide whose details make one cringe more than a century later.
As per tradition, Armenians and foreign representatives marched this Monday at Tsitsernakaberd memorial in Yerevan, dedicated to the victims.
The monument of twelve basalt slabs, representing the twelve provinces most affected by the genocide, encloses one and a half meters deep an eternal flamewhere thousands of flowers are stored.
The first country in the world to recognize the Armenian genocide It was Uruguay in 1965.
In 2021, the United States did it.
The facts
The order to cancel a city came with painstaking precision in the form of a decree: “We must exterminate the Armenian inhabitants of Türkiye.” To everyone. The boys, the old, the young, the intellectuals, the women, the peasants… How? One way or another. Shooting them, burning them, drowning them, hanging them…
No one objected to that order which commanded: “You must put an end to its existence.”
The decree was signed by the Turkish Interior Minister, Taalat Pasah, dated September 15, 1915.
And it was strictly adhered to even though the massacre had already started months before, April 24th.
One and a half million people died.
The genocide had been planned for at least five years before it happened. It was designed within the Ottoman Empire who wanted to see unity of all Turks without cultural aggregates. Therefore, Greeks, Syrian-Lebanese, Jews and Arabs were also massacred in the massacre.
Who were the Armenians?
The Armenians were a Christian people, settled in the eastern part of Turkey on the border with Russia, which he sought his emancipationa hope of autonomy that would condemn him to death.
75% of the Armenian people it was blown away. There were mass arrests which turned into deportations and then executions. The fields were littered with bloated bodies, corpses nailed to stakes, hanged, mutilated and burned.
Survivors fled to Russia, Lebanon and Syria. They have spread all over the world forming a large diaspora.
Since then, every April 24, Armenian communities from all over the world commemorate and ask for justice.
Armenia achieved its emancipation in 1991 when it was declared independent from the former Soviet Union. But for this Caucasian country, calm days are elusive.
The conflict with neighboring Azerbaijan over the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave remains a reaping shadow.
“Unfortunately today, just like a century ago, the danger of the genocidal policy is felt in different parts of the world and the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh face the threat of genocide and ethnic cleansing,” the Yerevan Foreign Ministry recalled on Monday. . It 108th anniversary of the Armenian genocide.
To date, Turkey has refused to classify the events as genocide.
Source: Clarin
Mary Ortiz is a seasoned journalist with a passion for world events. As a writer for News Rebeat, she brings a fresh perspective to the latest global happenings and provides in-depth coverage that offers a deeper understanding of the world around us.