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Euronews
Euronews
Euronews

Hundreds march through Yerevan in honour of 108-year anniversary of 1915 massacres

Hundreds of Armenians marched through their country's capital to mark the anniversary of the 1915 massacres on Sunday.

Mourners gathered in Yerevan's central square, carried lit torches, burned Turkish and Azerbaijani flags and walked through the streets in a procession accompanied by an orchestra.

A man sets fire to a Turkish national flag and an Azerbaijan national flag in Yerevan. (A man sets fire to a Turkish national flag and an Azerbaijan national flag in Yerevan.)

The event takes place every year, and it ends with participants carrying torches to the Tsitsernakaberd Armenian Genocide Memorial Complex.

In the centre of the complex is an eternal flame meant to represent the 1.5 million Armenians that historians estimate were killed during the massacres.

Armenians take part in a torchlight procession in Yerevan (Armenians take part in a torchlight procession in Yerevan)

The following day, 24 April, is known as Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day, and it marks the same day in 1915 when 250 intellectuals were rounded up and killed in Ottoman Turkey.

While Turkey concedes that many died in that era, the country has rejected the term genocide, saying the death toll is inflated and the deaths resulted from civil unrest during the Ottoman Empire’s collapse.

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