The Armenian community in Cyprus honoured the victims of the Armenian Genocide on the occasion of the 105th remembrance day of the Genocide.
A total of 1,500,000 Armenians perished between 1915 and 1923 as a result of torture, killing, massacres or forced marches 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 Covid 19 spread, events have been cancelled.
In the morning a small commemorativee event took place at the “Surp Astvazajin” Armenian Cathedral. 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, constitute a 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 fled to the island in the early 1920s.
(CNA)
