Armenians Hold Somber Memorials To Mark Genocide Remembrance Day

The Eternal Flame at the Armenian Genocide Museum in Yerevan where, every April 24, Armenia mourns the killing of up to 1.5 million Armenians under Ottoman rule.

 

Though April 24 marks the Day of Remembrance, Armenians, such as these villagers in Tavush in the country's northeast, took part in somber ceremonies the evening before. 




 

Villagers look on during a ceremony in Tavush.

During the murderous yearslong campaign that took place during World War I, a majority of the Ottoman Empire’s prewar Armenian population was either expelled or killed.


 

Thousands of Armenians participate in a torchlit procession in the nation's capital, Yerevan, on April 23.

 

Turkish and Azerbaijani flags were set alight in the nation's capital.

A century later, recognition of the killings as genocide is still a divisive diplomatic issue, with Turkey and Azerbaijan -- who share strong ethnic and cultural ties -- officially denying genocide took place. 

 

Torch-carrying participants march through the streets of Yerevan.

On April 24, 2021, U.S. President Joe Biden officially recognized the mass killings as genocide. It was a move that had also been promised by President Barack Obama but failed to materialize.

A drone captures early arrivals at the Armenian Genocide Museum complex in Yerevan on April 24, the Day of Remembrance.

A video grab of the thousands of people who paid their respects, with many laying flowers at the Eternal Flame.

 

A woman cries after laying a handful of red roses.

As of 2023, 31 UN member states recognize the 1915 events as genocide. Turkey claims that the number of deaths has been inflated and that those killed were victims of civil war and unrest. However, many scholars view the mass killings as the first genocide of the 20th century.