Armenians paid tribute on Tuesday to some 1.5 million victims of the genocide by the Ottoman Empire in 1915-23.
Tens of thousands of people made their annual pilgrimage to the Armenian Genocide Memorial in Yerevan in commemoration of the innocent victims of mass killings and deportations, the ArmeniaNow portal reported.
Representatives of Armenian political forces took a break from the ongoing parliamentary election race to join in the national day of mourning for the 97th annual commemoration of what was the first Genocide of the 20th century.
“Today we, just as many, many others all over the world, bow to the memory of the innocent victims of the Armenian Genocide,” President Serzh Sargsyan said in his address to the nation.
The Turkish genocide in Armenia was first recognized by Uruguay in 1965. Many countries, including Russia, have since followed suit.
The Ottoman Empire persecuted Armenians in the late 19th-early 20th centuries, allegedly massacring 1.5 million of them in 1915. Turkey, which has sought EU membership, denies the genocide accusations and bristles at any Western criticism on the issue.
Russia passed a resolution condemning the Armenian genocide in 1995.
