Hundreds of Thousands March to Genocide Memorial in Yerevan

YEREVAN (A.W.)—Carrying carnations, daffodils, and lilies, hundreds of thousands made the journey to the Armenian Genocide Memorial at Dzidzernagapert on April 24. President Serge Sarkisian, Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan, Catholicos of All Armenians Garegin II, and government officials paid their respects in the morning. Around noontime, people slowly inched forward—until they reached the monument at the summit—a walk that lasted roughly two hours. Police periodically blocked off the path to prevent congestion at the top. Many shaded themselves with umbrellas and hats from the scorching afternoon sun.

A scene from Dzidzernagapert on April 24, 2012 (Photo by Nanore Barsoumian)

The flood of people poured in from Kievyan Street. Sellers lined the street displaying an array of flowers. Vayots Dzor native Gisane Hakobyan, 21, said it was her first time partaking in the procession. A university student, Hakobyan said it is important “to respect our victims.” Her classmate, 18-year-old Ashot Harutunyan agreed. “It is our duty. We are paying our dues,” he said.

Opting out was not an option for 33-year-old Hambardzum Harutunyan. “We have to come,” said the lawyer who revealed that his maternal grandfather was a Genocide survivor from Sasoun. Harutunyan’s grandfather and his sister were the only ones who escaped.

“This is a tragedy that will never be forgotten. It is the greatest pain in the hearts of all Armenians,” said 52-year-old Tsolag Harutunyan. Originally from Mush, Harutunyan’s family too had suffered during the Genocide—when two of his great grandparents perished.

Setrak Mandoyan, 59, said he has been partaking in the April 24 commemoration events for as far back as he can remember. “I used to go with my father, now I bring my grandson,” he said. “They used to hold the commemoration event at the Opera House, until they constructed this monument,” he added. Mandoyan’s paternal grandfather, also named Setrak, lost all six of his brothers during the Genocide. His grandparents, who hailed from Ardahan and Artvin, escaped to Batum and made their way to Yerevan.

Photo by Nanore Barsoumian

Sixteen-year-old Tamara (“Tamig”) Tatevossian walked alongside her grandfather, brother, and 6-year-old sister. It was a walk all too familiar for Tatevossian who came every year since she was a little girl, her family too had been affected by the Genocide. Originally from Hamshen, her grandfather’s family fled from the Genocide and settled in Abkhazia until 1970, when they moved to Yerevan.

Some took a few moments to visit the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute adjacent to the monument, where an exhibit, “Book as a Witness of the Genocide,” was launched a day earlier. The exhibit—made to coincide with Yerevan being dubbed by UNESCO as the 2012 World Book Capital and in honor of the 500th anniversary of Armenian printing—displays first editions of around 300 books, some dating as far back as the 1850s. “We are expecting perhaps a couple of hundred thousand visitors today,” said Asdghig, a museum guide. According to her, April 24 and 25 are the busiest days of the year at the museum.

The pile of flowers from the night before encircling the eternal flame had turned into an almost four-foot tall wall. Dozens of wreaths rested against the outer walls of the monument representing the Armenian provinces lost during the Genocide.

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Nanore Barsoumian

Nanore Barsoumian

Nanore Barsoumian was the editor of the Armenian Weekly from 2014 to 2016. She served as assistant editor of the Armenian Weekly from 2010 to 2014. Her writings focus on human rights, politics, poverty, and environmental and gender issues. She has reported from Armenia, Nagorno-Karabagh, Javakhk and Turkey. She earned her B.A. degree in Political Science and English and her M.A. in Conflict Resolution from the University of Massachusetts (Boston).
Nanore Barsoumian

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11 Comments

  1. I would like to offer my respects to all the innocent victims of ethnic cleansings and tragedies that engulfed the region a century ago.
    These occasions should be an opportunity to emphasize the importance of harmony and respect between peoples, not cause for more hate. There is no worse way to serve the memories of the victims if the commemorations themselves are used to propagate blood feuds. There were victims on all sides.

    • {“One can not credibly argue against “fake” shamful acts, or manufactured history such as favored here on this site, “} (Murat March 5, 2011 @AW)

      Denialist Turk-Oglu Murat-Bey: nobody needs your fake respects here.
      Armenians had nothing to do with your victims, victims of a war that Ottoman Turkey started (against the Allies; Russia specifically in 1914).

      Your Ottoman and CUP Turk ancestors murdered unarmed Armenian civilians far, far away from any war zone.

      And the Armenian Genocide is “manufactured history” only in the Denialist unReality.

    • “victims of a war that Ottoman Turkey started”

      I hope you aren’t saying Turkey started WW1.

    • No: Germany started WW1. However, Ottoman Turkish navy ships launched a surprise attack on Russian Black Sea coast in 1914, under pressure from their secret ally Germany. Ottoman Turkey attacked one of the Allies, Russia.
      After the surprise attack, the Allies – Russia, France, and England – declared war on Ottoman Turkey. And you know the rest.

      I agree the phrase “war that Ottoman Turkey started” was not precise enough and could be misread. It was meant that Ottoman Turkey got into WW1 as an aggressor: no country had attacked her; she initiated an attack on a country that had not attacked her.

    • Avery: Yes the Ottomans initiated the conflict. Their greed to get back lost territories from the Russians led them into a war with countries in which their friendship was essentially based on hatred of a common enemy- Russia. Not exactly a recipe for success.

  2. Promising to fulfill certain things upon becoming president is just a political scam to earn votes..why my people aren’t picking up on this simple step I will never understand. Let’s expand our limited Christian minds shall we?

  3. To the Denialist Turk Murat-oghlu:

    The ethnic cleansings of and tragedies befallen the Ottoman Armenians were labeled by the Allied Powers back in 1915 as Turkish “crime against humanity”.

    In 1948, the case of ethnic cleansing and tragedy of the Armenians was thoroughly studied by an American lawyer of Jewish-Polish origin Raphael Lemkin, was coined “genocide” (Greek for: killing of a race), and used in the 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention of Genocide.

    Although you’ve done a lot of harm on these pages by your denialist stand, I could only believe in your sincerity if you re-phrase your post to conform to the reality, as follows:

    “I would like to offer my respects to all the innocent victims of genocide that befell the Armenians and other Christians a century ago in the hands of Ottoman Turkish authorities.”

    Otherwise, keep your sly, cheap Turkish respects to yourself and to your unremorseful nation!

  4. I have made the pilgrimage 3 times,over a span of 31 yrs .Very impressive.also the museum not far from it twice. Always with resolve, not to forget ever our martyrs also my own granpa and eldest uncle who hand in hand perished on Death March,according to my father,who luckily was in Istanbulla working to send home bread money..
    A few suggestions( I never dare give advice to compatriots, as yet)
    1.When turks or others insist that your Ancestros revolted and that was one of the reasons for getting what was coming to the,,Armenians in the past haves come forth saying .No it was not so we were loyal.then turkls insisted your fedayees joined up with Russian and stabbed on the back etc., etc.,
    We should reply from now on YES INDEED, WE CRAVED TO GET RID OF THAT YOLK AND HYATAGAN LIKE SLAVES ARE KNOW N TO HAVE FOUGHT FOR LIBERTY, AND WHY GO FAR…THE aMERICANS ALSO FOUGHT FOR THEIR LIBERTY ETC.,
    sO TO HELL WITRH THOSE TTOIKISH THREAT LIKE PRETENSTIONS…
    Stop being the defendent.We want what truly and lawfully belongs to us!!!!
    2. Another very LIVE EXAMPLE:
    eSPAÑA,sPAIN FOR OVER 6 CENTURIES WAS CONQUERED AND RULED OVER BY nORTH AFRICAN kHALIPHATES, THEN A PRINCESS UNITESD ALL sPAINSH PRINCES, GOT WELL ARMED AND <d r o v e them o u t
    K APUT!!!!!!
    bYTHE BY THE SPANISH THESE DAYS ARE IN HARMONEY WITH GREAT tURKEY BECAUSE OF A COUPLE OIF THINGS..ABOUT THAT ANOTHER TIME..
    bUT THEY ALSO FOUGHT THE OTTOMAN S IN THE ¨¨bATAL.LA DEL lEPANOT ON THE HIGH SEAS,-MEDITERRANEAN AND CRUSHED THE OTTOMAN NAVY…
    THINGS CHANGE…aRMENIA HAS JUST GOT RIDDEN OF THE SOVIET RULE, ALSO LIBERATED ONLY A FRACTION OF ITS ANCESTREAL LANDS…
    SO HELP US god allimightY!!!!

  5. RVDV: “I hope you aren’t saying Turkey started WW1.” No, officially Germans started, but Turks parroted them by attacking Russian Black Sea installations. In a sense, being a German ally, Turks have contributed to the causing of the WWI.

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