French President Emmanuel Macron has declared April 24 as a "national day of commemoration of the Armenian genocide."
Macron made the announcement on February 5 at a dinner for the Armenian community in France, honoring a campaign promise from his 2017 election campaign.
France was among the first nations to denounce "the murderous hunt of the Armenian people in the Ottoman Empire," he said at the annual dinner organized by the Coordinating Council of Armenian Organizations of France (CCAF).
France officially recognized the World War I-era mass slaughter and deportation of up to 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman Turks as genocide in 2001. At least 22 other countries, including Germany, have taken a similar step.
Armenia says the mass killing is one of the first examples of genocide in modern history, predating the Holocaust carried out by Nazi Germany against more than 6 million Jews during World War II.
Turkey objects, saying that Armenians died in much smaller numbers and because of civil strife rather than a planned, systemic effort by the Ottoman government against the Christian minority.
France's Macron Declares April 24 Commemoration Day Of Armenian Genocide

Editors' Picks
Top Trending
1
Russia Scrambling To Compensate For Destroyed Bridges In Southern Ukraine, Satellite Imagery Suggests
2Pet Patrol: Turkmen Dogcatchers Assigned To Kill 'Seven Stray Dogs A Day'
3In Ukraine, New Battle Lines Are Drawn: Look To The South
4Ukrainians Thank North Macedonia For Supply Of Soviet-Era Tanks
5Boom To Bust: Putin Sacrifices Gazprom's Lucrative European Market, 'Geopolitical Heft' In War With Ukraine
6Amnesty Ukraine Chief Quits Over Rights Report
7Revived Rockets: Ukraine's Verba Multiple Launcher System Targets Russian Forces In Kharkiv
8Ukraine, Russia Trade Blame On Shelling At Nuclear Power Plant As Fighting Rages In Donetsk
9Merchant Of Death. Lord Of War. The McDonald's Of Arms Trafficking: Who Is Viktor Bout?
10Amnesty Accuses Ukrainian Forces Of Endangering Civilians, Sparking Angry Response From Kyiv
Subscribe