Genocide Memorial Day

This, the most tragic date on the calendar, is dedicated to the memory of the victims of the Armenian Genocide.

On this day in 1915, hundreds of representatives of the Armenian intelligentsia were arrested in Constantinople by the Turkish authorities. Then they were transferred to detention centers near Angora (now Ankara). The arrests escalated into massacres of Armenian men throughout the Ottoman Empire. Women, children and the elderly were exiled to the Syrian desert, where most of them died or were kidnapped and enslaved by other ethnic groups. According to some estimates, the genocide claimed more than a million lives.

The first Memorial Day was held by a group of survivors of the Armenian genocide in Istanbul in 1919, after which this date began to be regularly celebrated by representatives of the Armenian community around the world, actively advocating for its official recognition.

In 1975, the US House of Representatives recognized April 24 as National Day of Remembrance in honor of the victims of inhumane treatment. In 1988, the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic declared April 24 an official non-working day. Later, Argentina, Canada, France and other countries recognized the genocide.

Every year on this day, hundreds of thousands of Armenians participate in the mourning procession, which silently passes through the streets of Yerevan to the Armenian Genocide Memorial to lay flowers in memory of the victims.