Genocide Remembrance Day

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This does not cite its references or sources.
Please help improve this article by introducing appropriate citations. (help, get involved!) This article has been tagged since June 2006.

Laying flowers at the eternal flame in Yerevan

Genocide Remembrance Day (local name: Եղեռնի զոհերի հիշատակի օր) is a national holiday in Armenia, observed on April 24. It is held annually to commemorate the victims of the Armenian Genocide during the government of the Young Turks, from 1915 to 1917 in the Ottoman Empire. It is commemorated by Armenians in dispersed communities around the world. In Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, crowds of people walk to the Tsitsernakaberd Genocide Memorial to lay flowers at the eternal flame.

The date commemorates the arrest, on 24 April 1915, of hundreds of Armenian intellectuals and community leaders, most of whom would be executed, which was a precursor to the ensuing events.

For a description of the events, and the controversy concerning them, see Armenian Genocide.