Thousands gathered Friday evening in Istanbul to mark the centennial of the mass killings of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey.
Armenians from around the world assembled in the evening sunshine at the entrance of central Taksim Square to remember the hundreds of thousands of their countrymen and women who died 100 years earlier in massacres and death marches as Turkish authorities forcibly deported them.
The event began with a smaller group hanging strips of cloth on a wooden "wishing tree," each representing a victim or survivor of the killings. A large crowd of chanting demonstrators arrived shortly afterward demanding that the events of 1915 be recognized as genocide. Turkish authorities are fiercely opposed to doing so, however, claiming instead that the deaths were the result of civil war that led to suffering on both sides.
Many attendees were members of the Armenian diaspora and had travelled to Turkey especially for the ceremony as well as a preceding program of concerts lectures and memorial services. Some clutched photographs of their ancestors — both survivors and victims — and told the stories behind the sepia-toned faces.
Roxeanna Makasdjian, a red-haired 54-year-old from San Francisco who runs a nonprofit focused on human rights and genocide, held a picture of her great grandmother and two others aloft. They lived through the killings, she told VICE News, but others in her family did not. Full story...
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Armenians from around the world assembled in the evening sunshine at the entrance of central Taksim Square to remember the hundreds of thousands of their countrymen and women who died 100 years earlier in massacres and death marches as Turkish authorities forcibly deported them.
The event began with a smaller group hanging strips of cloth on a wooden "wishing tree," each representing a victim or survivor of the killings. A large crowd of chanting demonstrators arrived shortly afterward demanding that the events of 1915 be recognized as genocide. Turkish authorities are fiercely opposed to doing so, however, claiming instead that the deaths were the result of civil war that led to suffering on both sides.
Many attendees were members of the Armenian diaspora and had travelled to Turkey especially for the ceremony as well as a preceding program of concerts lectures and memorial services. Some clutched photographs of their ancestors — both survivors and victims — and told the stories behind the sepia-toned faces.
Roxeanna Makasdjian, a red-haired 54-year-old from San Francisco who runs a nonprofit focused on human rights and genocide, held a picture of her great grandmother and two others aloft. They lived through the killings, she told VICE News, but others in her family did not. Full story...
Related posts:
- Turkey, Armenia and the other "forgotten" genocides...
- Armenian massacre remembrance sparks rift between Turkey and Europe...
- Armenia marks centenary of genocide by Ottoman Turkish Empire...
- Hungary remembers the Gaza genocide in Eurovision entry...
- Rwanda suspends BBC broadcasts over genocide film...
- Rwanda lashes out at France over genocide...
- Israel committed genocide in Gaza: EU delegation...
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