Tens of thousands of Armenians came to the rally in memory of the victims of the Genocide in Los Angeles. A PHOTO. VIDEO

Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Los Angeles (California) in Hollywood and downtown to remember the 104 anniversary of the Armenian Genocide and honor the memory of the victims.

Screenshot from Fox11 video

According to the correspondent CBS, the crowd of marchers in Hollywood was huge and continued to grow.

People took to the streets with Armenian flags and T-shirts with inscriptions “Our wounds are still open. 1915. According to the marchers, their goal is for the world to remember and officially recognize the tragic events of 1915 of the year, when the authorities of the Ottoman Empire killed 1,5 million Armenians.

Screenshot from Fox11 video

Participants in the march in Los Angeles insist that the United States and Turkey, the successor of the Ottoman Empire, should recognize the tragic events of those times as Armenian genocide. Another goal of the march is to remind the tragedy of the young generation of Armenians so that they know about the tragic events in the history of their people.

Screenshot from Fox11 video

The Armenians who came to the event tell horror stories about the murder of their ancestors by the Turks, and also that many of their grandparents decided to emigrate because they were afraid for their lives.

In addition, as part of the events, a car march is planned - a caravan of cars will go to the Turkish Consulate in Los Angeles with a call to recognize the events of 1915 as genocide.

Screenshot from video losangeles.cbslocal.com

Screenshot from Fox11 video

Screenshot from Fox11 video

History

By 1914, there were about 4,1 million Armenians worldwide. Of these, 2,1 million lived on the territory of the Ottoman Empire, 1,7 million - in Russia, 100 thousand - in Persia and 200 thousand - in other countries.

In 1915 – 1923, according to Armenian historians, about 1,5 million Armenians were destroyed in the Ottoman Empire, more than 60 Armenian cities and 2,5 thousands of villages were burned and looted. About 1 million fled or were evicted by the Turks in Mesopotamia, Lebanon or Syria.

“The real purpose of the deportation of Armenians was robbery and destruction; it really is a new method of slaughter. When the Turkish authorities ordered these expulsions, they actually passed the death sentence on an entire nation, ”wrote the US ambassador to Turkey in 1913 – 1916, Henry Morgentau.

The genocide caused the dispersion of Armenians, who today mostly live outside their historical homeland. In today's Turkey, if we do not count Istanbul, where approximately the 50-thousandth Armenian community remained, there were practically no Armenians left.

For more than 100 years, Armenian public and political organizations have been fighting in various countries for the official recognition and condemnation of the Armenian genocide of 1915. In 1987, the relevant resolution was adopted by the European Parliament. Of the countries, the first genocide was recognized in 1965 year, Uruguay, then France, Italy, Holland, Belgium, Poland, Lithuania, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland, Greece, Cyprus, Lebanon, Canada, Venezuela, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Vatican, Bolivia, Czech Republic , Austria, Luxembourg and Russia.

Of the US 50 states, the state 44 officially recognized and condemned the Armenian Genocide, and also declared April 24 the Commemoration Day of the Victims of the Armenian Genocide. The issue of recognition of the Armenian Genocide in the US Congress was repeatedly raised, but so far this has not happened.

The issue of recognition of genocide is one of the main obstacles in the normalization of relations between Armenia and Turkey. In modern Turkey, the mass deportation of Armenians during the First World War is not denied, but categorically refuse to recognize this as genocide. As a result, Yerevan and Ankara have not yet established diplomatic relations, and the border with the length of 330 kilometers is closed from 1993 year on the initiative of Turkey.

Several attempts to improve relations between countries have failed.

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