Funeral services will be held at all Armenian churches in the country and abroad

YEREVAN, April 24 /TASS/. Armenia and Armenians around the globe will commemorate the victims of genocide of Armenian population that took place in the Ottoman Empire in 1915. This date is another black day in Armenia’s official calendar along with the 1988 devastating earthquake in the Armenian town of Spitak.

A memorial complex on the Tsitsernakaberd (The Swallow Fortress) Hill from where Armenia’s capital Yerevan can be seen in full view will be the target of mass pilgrimage on Sunday. The memorial was unveiled in in 1967 following a decision of the government of Soviet Armenia. The Armenian leadership headed by President Serzh Sargsyan and the hierarchs of the Armenian Apostolic Church to be headed by Catholicos Garegin II will visit the Tsitsernakaberd Hill on Sunday morning. Funeral services will be held at all Armenian churches in the country and abroad. The Armenian Apostolic Church has canonized the genocide victims. Russian President Vladimir Putin was the first leader of modern Russia to visit the Yerevan memorial on September 15, 2001.

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Armenia seeks international recognition and condemnation of the act of genocide. A number of countries have done that. Greece and France have passed relevant laws. The Russian State Duma condemned the genocide of the Armenian people in a resolution adopted in 1995. The original of that resolution has been kept in a museum-institute of genocide that was opened next to the memorial the same year - in 1995. Russian President Vladimir Putin attended a memorial ceremony devoted to the genocide’s centenary anniversary on the Tsitsernakaberd Hill in 2015. "We genuinely sympathize with the Armenian people who suffered one of the most terrible tragedies in human history. More than 1.5 million peaceful civilians were either killed or maimed; more than 600,000 were evicted from their homes and subject to mass reprisals. Many priceless architectural monuments and holy sites were destroyed and ancient books and invaluable manuscripts were burnt," Putin said.

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