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RANGE OF EVENTS DEDICATED TO 97TH ANNIVERSARY OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE WERE LAUNCHED IN JERUSALEM
ARMENPRESS
25 April, 2012
YEREVAN
YEREVAN, APRIL 25, ARMENPRESS: Jerusalem and around the world
marked Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day on Tuesday with ceremonies
commemorating Armenians in Turkey who were killed between 1915
and 1923, reports Armenpress. A remembrance service was held in
the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem in the capital's Old City on
Monday night, and a requiem service and holy mass were conducted in the
St. James Cathedral of the Armenian Church on Sunday morning, also in
the Old City. On Monday evening, ahead of the commemoration services,
Archbishop Aris Shirvanian of the Armenian Patriarchate addressed
members of the Yedidya Synagogue in Jerusalem to speak about the events
surrounding the genocide and its repercussions on the Armenian people.
"All Armenians stand together and claim justice and reparations,"
he told The Jerusalem Post. The Armenian people and the descendants
of those killed have pursued recognition of the genocide since
1965, he said. "Until then, the generation of the survivors who had
suffered as children and seen with their own eyes the killings and
kidnappings, starvation and tortures were in a period of mourning,
but the newgeneration has sought justice for what was done to the
Armenian people during this great crime, the first genocide of the
twentieth century." Israel has not recognized the killings as genocide,
largely due to concerns about possible damage such a move could cause
regarding its diplomatic relations with Turkey. Last year, Knesset
Speaker Reuven Rivlin said that he intended to establish an annual
parliamentary session to mark the Armenian genocide.
A spokesman for Rivlin told the Post on Tuesday that although no such
session has been formally scheduled, in light of Rivlin's position on
the issue it is likely to go ahead in the near future, but did not
say if it would happen in the coming Knesset session. MK Arye Eldad
(National Union), who has made efforts in the Knesset to officially
recognize the genocide, said Israeli recognition "is getting closer,"
especially following the "breaking of the taboo of even discussing
it in the Knesset," in reference to a session held in the Education
Committee in December. "The issue is extremely important," Eldad said.
"There are those who try to deny the Holocaust and so we demand that
people are ethical and recognize that this really happened. So we
need to do the same thing for the Armenians who were killed in their
hundreds of thousands, at the very least we can do something symbolic
and mark the day."
Regarding the potential for harming relations with Turkey, Eldad
commented that any hopes that the Turkish government will become more
amenable to Israel in the near future are futile.
ARMENPRESS
25 April, 2012
YEREVAN
YEREVAN, APRIL 25, ARMENPRESS: Jerusalem and around the world
marked Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day on Tuesday with ceremonies
commemorating Armenians in Turkey who were killed between 1915
and 1923, reports Armenpress. A remembrance service was held in
the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem in the capital's Old City on
Monday night, and a requiem service and holy mass were conducted in the
St. James Cathedral of the Armenian Church on Sunday morning, also in
the Old City. On Monday evening, ahead of the commemoration services,
Archbishop Aris Shirvanian of the Armenian Patriarchate addressed
members of the Yedidya Synagogue in Jerusalem to speak about the events
surrounding the genocide and its repercussions on the Armenian people.
"All Armenians stand together and claim justice and reparations,"
he told The Jerusalem Post. The Armenian people and the descendants
of those killed have pursued recognition of the genocide since
1965, he said. "Until then, the generation of the survivors who had
suffered as children and seen with their own eyes the killings and
kidnappings, starvation and tortures were in a period of mourning,
but the newgeneration has sought justice for what was done to the
Armenian people during this great crime, the first genocide of the
twentieth century." Israel has not recognized the killings as genocide,
largely due to concerns about possible damage such a move could cause
regarding its diplomatic relations with Turkey. Last year, Knesset
Speaker Reuven Rivlin said that he intended to establish an annual
parliamentary session to mark the Armenian genocide.
A spokesman for Rivlin told the Post on Tuesday that although no such
session has been formally scheduled, in light of Rivlin's position on
the issue it is likely to go ahead in the near future, but did not
say if it would happen in the coming Knesset session. MK Arye Eldad
(National Union), who has made efforts in the Knesset to officially
recognize the genocide, said Israeli recognition "is getting closer,"
especially following the "breaking of the taboo of even discussing
it in the Knesset," in reference to a session held in the Education
Committee in December. "The issue is extremely important," Eldad said.
"There are those who try to deny the Holocaust and so we demand that
people are ethical and recognize that this really happened. So we
need to do the same thing for the Armenians who were killed in their
hundreds of thousands, at the very least we can do something symbolic
and mark the day."
Regarding the potential for harming relations with Turkey, Eldad
commented that any hopes that the Turkish government will become more
amenable to Israel in the near future are futile.