Jerusalem Commemorates the 92st Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide

On Tuesday, the 24th of April 2007, the Armenian communities of Jerusalem, Jaffa, Haifa and Petah Tikva gathered in Jerusalem to commemorate the 92nd anniversary of the first premeditated genocide the 20th century has witnessed, the Armenian Genocide.

Over 500 people has taken part in a chain of events that were organized by the United Armenian Committee of Jerusalem.

The commemoration has started at 9am with a special Holy Liturgy at the St. James Armenian Cathedral held by the Armenian Patriarch of Jerusalem His Beatitude Arch. Torkom Manoogian, and was dedicated to the 1.5 million Armenians who perished under Ottoman barbarism.

Following the Holy Mass, at 11:00am, the gathered participated in a march, headed by the Homenetmen and Hoyechmen scouts groups, from the Armenian Convent of St. James to the St. Savior Armenian Cemetery on Mt. Zion where a religious procession was held on the Arrara Monument by Arch. Nourhan Manougian. The speech of the day was delivered by Ms. Kayane Antreasian of the Hoyechmen, where she stressed the importance of unity in the efforts for the recognition of the Armenian Genocide. Her speech was followed by that of Mr. Barak of the Mertez-Youths faction.

At 12:30, following the procession around Arrara monument, a protest was held in front of the Turkish Consulate of Jerusalem for the recognition of the Armenian Genocide. The protest gathered more than 400 Armenians who sang Armenian patriotic songs and chanted slogans.

It is worth mentioning that at the same hour of the protest in Jerusalem another protest was held in Tel-Aviv in front of the Turkish Embassy.

After the protest, the participants marched from the Jaffa Gate of the old city of Jerusalem to the Armenian Convent of St. James bringing to an end a day of commemoration of the Armenian Genocide.

It is worth mentioning that all above mentioned events were widely covered by both local and foreign media, including the Turkish News Agency. Also worth to mention that most participants were bearing t-shirts that read "Fight to Stop the Turkish Denial Machine".