Yesterday, April 24, the national day of commemoration of the Armenian genocide, the ongoing epidemic lockdown prevented the ceremonies from taking place in the presence of authorities and representatives of the Armenian diaspora, which numbers nearly 700,000 people in France.
Only a brief official meeting took place in the presence of government members, the Armenian diplomatic corps, and the Armenian church.
The President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, sent a letter to his counterpart Armen Sarkissian expressing his feelings of sympathy.
In Nice, where Armenian nationals have found refuge—and many families still live there, estimated at nearly 5,000 people—on the hill of La Madeleine, Christian Estrosi wanted to express his feelings: “In these difficult times, more than ever, it is through the heart that we, all Niçois, from Armenia and elsewhere, form one beautiful, large, and fraternal community!”
On Saturday, April 24, 1915, in Constantinople (note), the capital of the Ottoman Empire, 600 Armenian notables were murdered on the government’s orders. This marked the beginning of a genocide, the first of the 20th century.
It resulted in approximately 1.2 to 1.5 million victims in the Armenian population of the Turkish Empire (as well as more than 250,000 in the Assyro-Chaldean minority of the eastern provinces and 350,000 among the Pontics, Greek-speaking Orthodox Christians of the Pont province).
The Turks have never recognized the genocidal nature of this extermination, considering it an act of repression against revolutionary activities.
