Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the traditional annual torchlight procession to the Tsitsernakaberd Memorial in Yerevan did not take place.
Instead, street lighting was turned off at 9:00 p.m. in memory of the victims of the Genocide in Yerevan and throughout Armenia, and people who in self-isolation turned out the lights in their houses, lit candles and shone lights of their mobile phones through the windows.
Bells rang in churches in memory of the victims of the Genocide, whom the Armenian Apostolic Church ranked as saints in 2015.
Today, April 24, there will also be no mass events dedicated to the 105th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.
Only the official leadership of the country will come to the Tsitsernakaberd memorial, Radio Azatutyun reports.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and his wife Anna Hakobyan at the Tsitsernakaberd memorial complex commemorated the victims of the 1915 Armenian Genocide.
The head of government laid a wreath at the memorial complex and flowers at the Eternal Flame.
“Today is the 105th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. Armenians were completely wiped from Western Armenia. One and a half million of our compatriots were killed. Hundreds of thousands of Armenians became exiles, having lost the right to live in their historical Motherland. The Armenian people not only suffered terrible losses but lost their homeland and suffered cultural genocide,” Pashinyan said.
He noted that it is difficult to assess all the losses of the Armenian people. The Armenian Genocide has become not only a crime against the identity of the Armenian people but also the entire civilization. April 24th became a symbol of this crime because on this day hundreds of Armenian intellectuals, religious and political figures were detained by order of the Young Turk government, exiled, killed or went missing.
The ceremony is accompanied by a live performance of the famous pianist, honoured artist Hayk Melikyan.