Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day

Genocide Memorial Day ('Mets Yegherrni zoheri hishataki') in Armenia is a public holiday on April 24th every year.

History of Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day

Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day is a time to reflect on the Armenian Genocide and remember those who lost their lives during it. Memorial Day has been celebrated since the 1920s, and April 24 was chosen because it was that day in 1915 when the genocide began. On that day, hundreds of intellectuals such as writers, doctors, scientists, musicians, lawyers, clerics, and members of the Armenian parliament were arrested in Constantinople. They were exiled to Anatolia some died on the way and some were killed there. This was the first part of a larger plan to exterminate Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, in the first state-planned genocide of the twentieth century.

Armenians have lived in this area for 3,000 years. During some of these times they were an independent nation, but more often they were under the dominion of an empire. Beginning in the fifteenth century, the Armenians came under the domination of the Ottoman Empire. Decades before the genocide, Armenians were killed. Under the rule of Sultan Abdul Hamid, hundreds of thousands of Armenians were killed when the Turks attacked Armenian villages in the mid-1890s.

After the "Young Turks" came to power in 1908 and established a more modern constitutional government, the Armenians initially hoped that they would gain equal rights with others in the Ottoman Empire. . But they soon realized that their hopes would not come true, when it became clear that the young Turks wanted to save and expand the Ottoman Empire, and the Armenians stood in the way. The Turks planned the genocides in 1911 and 1912, and World War I gave them the opportunity to carry it out. In 1914, when the Turks sided with Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, they believed that the Armenians would want to fight for the enemy. It was because they assumed that the Armenians believed they would be free if the Allies won. The Turks used this to justify removing the Armenians from the war zone.

The genocide was launched with the arrest and killing of intellectuals. The next stage of the genocide was the killing of hundreds of thousands of women, children and elderly people in the Syrian Desert. They were subjected to death marches, where many were stripped naked and forced to walk in the hot sun. This caused some of them to die. Those who stopped to rest were shot. The young Turks also formed a "Special Organization" consisting of murder squads that worked to kill Armenians in gruesome ways, such as drowning, burning, and crucifixion. There were two million Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire before World War I, and between 1915 and 1923, about 1.5 million of them were killed.

Not long after the genocide began, France, Russia, and Britain labeled the events as crimes against humanity and pointed the finger at the Turkish government to blame. After World War I, young Turks fled to Germany, where they were told they would not be prosecuted. In a covert operation called Operation Nemesis, the Armenians worked to assassinate those who had participated in the genocide. To this day, the Turkish government still refuses to admit genocide. They refuse to acknowledge atrocities as widespread or systematic, and say whatever is done is necessary because the Armenians are like an enemy force in war. The United States has at times been reluctant to call the killings genocide, so as not to alienate an ally.

How to celebrate Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day

The whole day could be spent at the Armenian Genocide Museum. The Armenian Genocide Memorial is located there, and every year on April 24, a silent march goes there, where flowers are placed around the eternal flame. For a more detailed account of the genocide, you can read a book about it. You can also explore photos and watch movies about the genocide.