What some consider the first genocide of the 20th Century continued until 1923.
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Ms Amoudian has discovered New Zealanders were well informed about the mass killings a century ago. A stone cenotaph on a hill in the Armenian capital Yerevan, featuring an eternal flame, is a centre point of the commemorations.
“By allowing a shadowy organization to buy ad space and perpetuate noxious, unsupported views that ignore the systematic killing of ann estimated 1.5 million Armenians, they are complicit in genocide denial”.
President Erdogan said that the representatives of all nations living on the territory of the Ottoman Empire suffered during the events of 1915.
The Turkish opposition – echoed by some USA diplomats, military leaders and corporate executives – has also helped block congressional Armenian genocide resolutions for years.
On Saturday, a vigil was held outside Glendale City Hall and the United Armenian Council of Los Angeles held a special observance at the Armenian Genocide Martyrs Monument in Montebello. “Instead, this decision will be just another sad milestone in the struggle to prevent genocide by exposing genocide and its perpetrators”.
He said: “When someone is trying to annihilate a whole human race, culture, people, that’s genocide, there can be no other version of it”.
“Today we stand with the Armenian people throughout the world in recalling the horror of the Meds Yeghern and reaffirm our ongoing commitment to a democratic, peaceful, and prosperous Armenia”.
Diaspora Armenians known in their countries and internationally are also spreading the word about the Armenian Genocide these days.
Ankara believes that up to 500,000 Armenian were killed, but mostly due to war and starvation.
Though Obama administration officials have debated using the genocide label in the past, this year’s deliberations come as Obama seeks Turkey’s assistance in fighting the Islamic State group – especially along Turkey’s long border with Syria.
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Turkey however denies that the deaths constituted genocide, saying the toll has been inflated, and that those killed were victims of civil war and unrest.
