Armenian community in Cyprus honors the Armenian Genocide amid pandemic CNA - CYPRUS/Nicosia 24/04/2020
The Armenian community in Cyprus today honors the Armenian Genocide, on the occasion of the 105th remembrance day of the Genocide, during which a total of 1,500,000 Armenians perished between 1915 and 1923 as a result of tortures, killings, massacres or forced deaths in the desert of Deir ez-Zor.
Vartkes Mahdessian, the Representative of the Armenian community in the Cyprus House of Representatives, told the CNA that because of the measures against the covid19 spread, the events have been cancelled.
In the morning a small commemorate event took place at the "Surp Astvazajin" Armenian Cathedral. Τhen Archbishop Horen Togramatzian and Mahdessian laid wreathes at the Armenian Genocide Monument. Mahdessian laid a wreath on behalf of the Cyprus House President. Presidential Commissioner Photis Photiou attended the event.
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.
Approximately 4,000 Armenians live in Cyprus. Most of them flew to the island in the early 1920s.
CNA/KCH/GCH 2020
ENDS, CYPRUS NEWS AGENCY
