Armenian Genocide to be commemorated on Friday

On Friday Cyprus will mark the 105th remembrance day for the Armenian Genocide of 1915.

The Presidential Commissioner for Humanitarian Issues and Overseas Cypriots, Fotis Fotiou, expressed the country’s respect and support for Armenians on the occasion of Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day on April 24.

“It is one of the greatest crimes in modern human history and was the forerunner of the genocide of Greeks living in Pontus and Asia Minor,” he said in a written statement.

Fotiou said the killing of more than 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Empire has gone unpunished but should not be forgotten.

The Armenian representative’s office said on Thursday that the anniversary would be marked at 10am on Friday at the ‘Surp Astvatsatsin’ Armenian cathedral within the Nicosia walls, implementing all necessary measures due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Archbishop Horen Togramatzian and Representative of the Armenian Community in parliament Vartkes Mahdessian will lay wreaths at the Monument to the Armenian Genocide.

To this day Turkey denies that the crimes, carried out in the region by the Ottomans, constituted genocide. Cyprus was the first countries in Europe to officially recognise the mass murders in 1975, while 31 more countries have recognised the crimes as such since then.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.