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Armenia's main church, Echmiadzin, an austere fourth-century edifice believed to be the Christian world's oldest cathedral, set to hold a service to canonise up to 1.5 million Armenians massacred by Ottoman forces. Video provided by AFP Newslook
The eternal flame burns at the Armenian genocide memorial on April 24, 2015 in Yerevan, Armenia.(Photo: Brendan Hoffman, Getty Images)
YEREVAN, ARMENIA – One hundred years after up to 1.5 million Armenians were massacred by Turks in the Ottoman Empire, a sunny, mountainous, landlocked republic struggles with the past to define its future.
Armenians commemorated 100 years since the atrocities this week with concerts, marches, and demands that other countries join 24 states in recognizing the killings as genocide, the term used to define the events by most historians.
In the United States, where recognition of genocide has come from 43 states, President Obama has avoided using the term. The White House sent Treasury Secretary Jack Lew to lead the U.S. delegation to Yerevan's commemoration events.
For some locals in Yerevan, that draws continued disappointment.
"For me, America is a symbol of higher education and after that, what [Obama] did was not good," said Artur Ovanesyan, a historian who now drives a cab. "We waited for a gesture in Armenia. Now I feel I have been hurt."
The city was dotted with violet and gold forget-me-nots, the adopted symbol of the massacre. Billboards in English, Armenian and Russian urged locals and visitors to "remember and demand," while other posters spelled out the numbers "1915" using swords, hatchets and other instruments used in the killings.
Turkey has long insisted that those killed, mostly Christian Armenians and Muslim Turks, were victims of civil war and unrest as the Ottoman Empire collapsed during World War I.
There was some low-key display of anti-Turkish sentiment — one car was spotted dragging a Turkish flag over the pavement, a few other cars displayed posters ridiculing neighboring Azerbaijan, a former Soviet republic with close cultural ties to Turkey that was embroiled in a conflict with Armenia following the breakup of the Soviet Union.
Locked between Turkey to the West, Iran to the South, Azerbaijan to the East and Georgia to the North, Armenia remains in a precarious geopolitical position, overshadowed by the impasse over Turkey's refusal to recognize the killings as genocide.
Armenia's border with Turkey is patrolled by Russian troops and has remained closed over Armenia's support of the de facto independent Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh in Azerbaijan, where an ethnic conflict sparked a war in the early 1990s.
Deadly clashes continue to flare up between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the status of Nagorno-Karabakh itself. In the latest conflict between the breakaway republic and Azerbaijan on April 22, Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry said five Armenians were killed, although the Nagorno-Karabakh Defense Ministry said one Azerbaijani was killed and there were no Armenian casualties.
Seeking a powerful ally, Armenia joined the Eurasian Economic Union with Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus earlier this year. Russia's President Vladimir Putin was one of four world leaders, together with the presidents of France, Serbia and Cyrpus to visit Armenia's capital on Friday.
"April 24, 2015 is a sorrowful date linked to one of the most tragic and dramatic events in the history of humanity — the genocide of the Armenian people," Putin said in an official statement published on the Kremlin's site.
"One hundred years later, we bow our heads before the memory of all victims of this tragedy, which our country has always seen as its own pain and sorrow."
On Friday Putin, along with French President François Hollande, placed a yellow rose inside a wreath at the Tsitsernakaberd memorial complex during a two-hour ceremony.
In Yerevan, most of the centennial events focused on remembrance, not politics.
"For us, Armenians, remembrance is a moral obligation and, at the same time, inalienable individual and collective right," Armenia's President, Serzh Sargsyan said Tuesday.
On Thursday, Armenia's Apostolic Church canonized the up to 1.5 million victims in an unprecedented ceremony. Thousands of people turned up to Etchmiadzin, the seat of the Armenian Apostolic Church a half-hour's drive from Yerevan.
For many locals, the emotions from recognizing the victims as saints were too strong to put into words.
"This is a very difficult day for us," said Alvina Seropyan, who came to Etchmiadzin with her three-year-old son and was standing on the lawn near where the ceremony was being held, holding a branch of lilacs. "For so many years I didn't come to Etchmiadzin, now I felt I had to. It is so difficult to describe what I feel right now."
According to clergy, recognizing the sainthood of the victims was intended as a psychological reconciliation for the people.
"I cannot say anything about the political side of it. But spiritually, morally speaking, we are elevating them from being victims to the rank of victory," said Bishop Bagrat Galstanyan, who took part in the ceremony.
"It's a psychological change. Since the genocide of 1915 we have been perceiving them as victims. Now we will be accepting them as those who have made victory over death."
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Armenia's main church, Echmiadzin, an austere fourth-century edifice believed to be the Christian world's oldest cathedral, set to hold a service to canonise up to 1.5 million Armenians massacred by Ottoman forces. Video provided by AFP Newslook
The eternal flame burns at the Armenian genocide memorial on April 24, 2015 in Yerevan, Armenia.(Photo: Brendan Hoffman, Getty Images)
YEREVAN, ARMENIA – One hundred years after up to 1.5 million Armenians were massacred by Turks in the Ottoman Empire, a sunny, mountainous, landlocked republic struggles with the past to define its future.
Armenians commemorated 100 years since the atrocities this week with concerts, marches, and demands that other countries join 24 states in recognizing the killings as genocide, the term used to define the events by most historians.
In the United States, where recognition of genocide has come from 43 states, President Obama has avoided using the term. The White House sent Treasury Secretary Jack Lew to lead the U.S. delegation to Yerevan's commemoration events.
For some locals in Yerevan, that draws continued disappointment.
"For me, America is a symbol of higher education and after that, what [Obama] did was not good," said Artur Ovanesyan, a historian who now drives a cab. "We waited for a gesture in Armenia. Now I feel I have been hurt."
The city was dotted with violet and gold forget-me-nots, the adopted symbol of the massacre. Billboards in English, Armenian and Russian urged locals and visitors to "remember and demand," while other posters spelled out the numbers "1915" using swords, hatchets and other instruments used in the killings.
Turkey has long insisted that those killed, mostly Christian Armenians and Muslim Turks, were victims of civil war and unrest as the Ottoman Empire collapsed during World War I.
There was some low-key display of anti-Turkish sentiment — one car was spotted dragging a Turkish flag over the pavement, a few other cars displayed posters ridiculing neighboring Azerbaijan, a former Soviet republic with close cultural ties to Turkey that was embroiled in a conflict with Armenia following the breakup of the Soviet Union.
Locked between Turkey to the West, Iran to the South, Azerbaijan to the East and Georgia to the North, Armenia remains in a precarious geopolitical position, overshadowed by the impasse over Turkey's refusal to recognize the killings as genocide.
Armenia's border with Turkey is patrolled by Russian troops and has remained closed over Armenia's support of the de facto independent Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh in Azerbaijan, where an ethnic conflict sparked a war in the early 1990s.
Deadly clashes continue to flare up between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the status of Nagorno-Karabakh itself. In the latest conflict between the breakaway republic and Azerbaijan on April 22, Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry said five Armenians were killed, although the Nagorno-Karabakh Defense Ministry said one Azerbaijani was killed and there were no Armenian casualties.
Seeking a powerful ally, Armenia joined the Eurasian Economic Union with Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus earlier this year. Russia's President Vladimir Putin was one of four world leaders, together with the presidents of France, Serbia and Cyrpus to visit Armenia's capital on Friday.
"April 24, 2015 is a sorrowful date linked to one of the most tragic and dramatic events in the history of humanity — the genocide of the Armenian people," Putin said in an official statement published on the Kremlin's site.
"One hundred years later, we bow our heads before the memory of all victims of this tragedy, which our country has always seen as its own pain and sorrow."
On Friday Putin, along with French President François Hollande, placed a yellow rose inside a wreath at the Tsitsernakaberd memorial complex during a two-hour ceremony.
In Yerevan, most of the centennial events focused on remembrance, not politics.
"For us, Armenians, remembrance is a moral obligation and, at the same time, inalienable individual and collective right," Armenia's President, Serzh Sargsyan said Tuesday.
On Thursday, Armenia's Apostolic Church canonized the up to 1.5 million victims in an unprecedented ceremony. Thousands of people turned up to Etchmiadzin, the seat of the Armenian Apostolic Church a half-hour's drive from Yerevan.
For many locals, the emotions from recognizing the victims as saints were too strong to put into words.
"This is a very difficult day for us," said Alvina Seropyan, who came to Etchmiadzin with her three-year-old son and was standing on the lawn near where the ceremony was being held, holding a branch of lilacs. "For so many years I didn't come to Etchmiadzin, now I felt I had to. It is so difficult to describe what I feel right now."
According to clergy, recognizing the sainthood of the victims was intended as a psychological reconciliation for the people.
"I cannot say anything about the political side of it. But spiritually, morally speaking, we are elevating them from being victims to the rank of victory," said Bishop Bagrat Galstanyan, who took part in the ceremony.
"It's a psychological change. Since the genocide of 1915 we have been perceiving them as victims. Now we will be accepting them as those who have made victory over death."
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1GoDLZb
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