Armenians in Iran Hold Protest Rally to Mark 1915 Genocide

Iranian-Armenians on Monday gathered in St. Sarkis Cathedral and then outside the Turkish embassy to commemorate the Armenians who were murdered by the Ottoman Empire during World War I.

On the 102nd anniversary of the genocide, notable Armenians like well-known conductor Loris Tjeknavorian and top Armenian clergymen took part in the protest rallies to condemn the deadly incident.

A little girl in one of the photos is holding a placard that reads: “Turkey commits the crime, US supports it.”

Here are Tasnim’s photos of the gathering:

The Armenian Genocide, also known as the Armenian Holocaust, was the Ottoman government’s systematic extermination of 1.5 million Armenians, mostly Ottoman citizens within the Ottoman Empire and its successor state, the Republic of Turkey.

The starting date is conventionally held to be 24 April 1915, the day that Ottoman authorities rounded up, arrested, and deported 235 to 270 Armenian intellectuals and community leaders from Constantinople to the region of Ankara, the majority of whom were eventually murdered.

Turkey, the successor state of the Ottoman Empire, denies the word genocide as an accurate term for the mass killings of Armenians that began under Ottoman rule in 1915. It has in recent years been faced with repeated calls to recognize them as genocide.

To date, 29 countries including Iran have officially recognized the mass killings as genocide, as have most genocide scholars and historians.