Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day – April 24, 2024

History of Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day

Ethnic Armenians all over the world commemorate April 24 as a day of profound sorrow. It commemorates the day that authorities of the Ottoman Empire, the forerunner of modern-day Turkey, rounded up and murdered hundreds of Armenian community leaders in what became Istanbul. It was then known as Constantinople. That triggered a chain of events that resulted in the deaths of over a million Armenians.

Armenia had been a part of the Ottoman Empire since the 15th century. The Armenian population flourished and grew throughout the Ottoman Empire, and it had grown to a substantial proportion by the time much of modern-day Armenia was subjected to Russian control in the late 19th century. In 1914, the Ottoman Empire sided with the Germans and the Austro-Hungarian Empire in World War I. The religious leaders proclaimed a religious war against all Christians, except for those who sided with them. This was bad news for Christian Armenians, as the Turkish government regarded the Armenian community as a hostile force to be defeated.

As a result, Armenians were persecuted and murdered. About 400,000 Armenians remained in Turkey by 1923, compared to a prior population of more than two million at the time of the persecution. On Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day, throngs of Armenians assemble at the Tsitsernakaberd Genocide Memorial to remember the victims of the genocide and to place flowers at its eternal flame. Following the 1965 Yerevan demonstrations, during which 100,000 people marched through the streets of Yerevan for 24 hours to mark the 50th anniversary of the deportations, the memorial’s construction began. They asked that the Soviet authorities recognize it as genocide on an official basis. Armenia officially recognized April 24 as a national day of remembrance in 1988.