ARMENIA: ARMENIANS MARK THE 90TH ANNIVERSARY OF GENOCIDE OF 1.5 MILLION ARMENIANS IN 1915, WITH TORCHLIGHT PROCESSION

Record ID: 647540

  • Title: ARMENIA: ARMENIANS MARK THE 90TH ANNIVERSARY OF GENOCIDE OF 1.5 MILLION ARMENIANS IN 1915, WITH TORCHLIGHT PROCESSION
  • Date: 23rd April 2005
  • Summary: (BN15) YEREVAN, ARMENIA (APRIL 23, 2005) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. VARIOUS OF VOLUNTEERS DISTRIBUTING TORCHES/THE SQUARE/ PAN OF SQUARE 0.10 2. WIDE OF PEOPLE HOLDING HUGE ARMENIAN FLAG 0.14 3. SLV EXTERIOR OF THE ARMENIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY 0.19 4. CLOSE OF SIGN READING " FOREIGN MINISTRY OF ARMENIA" 0.26 5. SCU (SOUNDBITE) (English) VARDAN OSKANYAN, ARMENIAN FOREIGN MINISTER SAYING: "Genocide today is still a threat for the international community. That issue has been addressed by the UN and others. Secondly, there is the issue of Turkey's accession into the European Union. That's why this issue has also come to the forefront because if Turkey would like to join the European Union, the Union must ask, that's what they are doing now, so that Turkey come to terms with its past." 0.53 6. SLV OF PHOTOGRAPHS ON THE WALL 0.58 7. SCU (SOUNDBITE) (English) OSKANYAN, SAYING: "With regards to the Turkey's accession to the European Union, Armenia would like to see as the accession talks begin, end of this year, that the genocide recognition and open borders with Armenia be included on the agenda of the European Union. Because the Turkish-Armenian border today is the last closed border in Europe and that must be opened and one cannot envisage that eventually Turkey will become an EU member with a closed border with Armenia." 1.30 8. SLV ARMOURED VEHICLE DRIVING THROUGH THE SQUARE WITH PEOPLE WITH ARMENIAN FLAGS ON IT 1.43 9. PAN OF THE SQUARE / RALLY PARTICIPANTS LIGHTING TORCHES 1.53 10. WIDE/ PAN OF SQUARE FILLED WITH PEOPLE WITH TORCH-LIGHTS 2.02 11. WIDE OF DRUMMERS MARCHING AT THE HEAD OF THE PROCESSION 2.15 12. WIDE OF TORCH-LIGHT PROCESSION 2.22 13. WIDE OF PEOPLE CARRYING HUGE ARMENIAN FLAG 2.30 14. WIDE OF PEOPLE CARRYING ARMENIAN FLAG AND TORCHES, CHANTING "RECOGNIZE" 2.41 15. WIDE OF THE PROCESSION 2.51 16. SCU (SOUNDBITE) (English) ARMENIAN FROM LOS ANGELES IN THE USA, RUBINA PIRUMYAN SAYING: "Today for me is a very special day. I've been doing this for years and years, commemorating the memory of the genocide of the victims of the Armenian genocide and I am excited today because this evening I am excited because I am walking with the youth of Armenia." 3.10 17. WIDE OF PEOPLE SAYING PRAYERS AT THE MONUMENT TO THE VICTIMS OF THE GENOCIDE 3.21 18. SLV REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ARMENIAN GREGORIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH PRAYING AT THE MONUMENT TO THE VICTIMS 3.26 19. WIDE OF THE RALLY OUTSIDE THE MONUMENT 3.32 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 8th May 2005 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: YEREVAN, ARMENIA
  • Country: Armenia
  • Reuters ID: LVAAQE3UTN8DSZ7QE80V82J4R1L1
  • Story Text: Armenia marks 90th anniversary of what they call a
    genocide day with the torch-light procession.




    Thousands of Armenians took part in a torch-light
    procession in the Armenian capital Yerevan on Saturday
    night (April 23) to commemorate what they say is Turkey's
    genocide of 1.5 million of their people, and which 90 years
    on is casting a shadow over Ankara's European ambitions.

    People carrying torches and a huge Armenian flag
    chanted "Recognize genocide" as they passed by the US
    embassy building on the way towards the monument to the
    victims.

    Armenians say their kin were systematically
    exterminated by Ottoman Turkey's rulers during and soon
    after World War I and that modern Turkey ought to recognize
    that as a genocide. Modern Turkey refuses to acknowledge
    the allegations, saying there were no plan to wipe out
    Armenians and that most of the victims died in a conflict when
    Russians and Armenians, as their allies, attacked eastern Turkey.

    It is an old debate but the October 3 date for the
    start of Turkey's talks on entry to the European Union has
    thrust it - and this tiny ex-Soviet republic on Turkey's
    eastern border - into the centre of the European political arena.

    "Genocide today is still a threat for the
    international community. That issue has been addressed by
    the UN and others. Secondly, there is the issue of Turkey's
    accession into the European Union. That's why this issue
    has also come to the forefront because if Turkey would like
    to join the European Union, the Union must ask, that's what
    they are doing now, so that Turkey come to terms with its
    past", said Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan.

    The problem for Ankara is that some European
    politicians - notably in France, home to an influential,
    400 000-strong Armenian community - agree with him.

    A Christian nation of 3.2 million people almost
    encircled by hostile neighbours, Armenia says persuading
    Turkey to own up to genocide is an issue of national
    security and a symbol of human justice.

    Armenia nervously eyes its neighbour - home to the
    biggest army in NATO after the United States - across a
    355-km frontier that zigzags through the snow-topped
    Caucasus mountains.

    "With regards to the Turkey's accession to the
    European Union, Armenia would like to see as the accession
    talks begin, end of this year, that the genocide
    recognition and open borders with Armenia be included on
    the agenda of the European Union. Because the
    Turkish-Armenian border today is the last closed border in
    Europe and that must be opened and one cannot envisage that
    eventually Turkey will become an EU member with a closed
    border with Armenia," said Oskanyan, who grew up in Syria
    after his family fled their home in southern Turkey.

    The two countries have no diplomatic relations and
    Turkey shut the border in 1993 out of solidarity with
    Turkish-speaking Azerbaijan, which was fighting a
    territorial war with Armenia in the early 1990s.



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