Federal Lezghi
National and Cultural Autonomy

 

On April 23, Yerevan hosted a torchlight procession to pay tribute to the memory of victims of the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire. Participants of the torch procession demanded to withdraw the Armenian-Turkish protocols of 2009.

The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports that the torchlight procession was organized by the junior and youth unions of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) "Dashnaktsutyun", the student union "Nikol Agbalyan", and the Ararat Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church, and it was attended by more than 15,000 people.

In his speech, Kiro Manoyan, the head of the office of "Ai Dat", has noted that in future, the Armenian people will be demanding to restore justice. He has criticized the statement made by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who expressed his condolences to the descendants of Armenians.

"He expresses the condolences not about crime, but about the victims, as if they died during an earthquake," Kiro Manoyan has said.

Karen Avakyan, a coordinator of the Youth Foundation of Armenia, has stated that "the compensation, the restitution of lands and the very recognition of the Armenian Genocide by Turkey are integral parts of the restoration of justice." He has also expressed the hope that by the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, the number of countries, which recognize the genocide, will increase.