ISRAEL: JERUSALEM: ARMENIAN QUARTER MEMORIAL

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• published: 21 Jul 2015
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Natural Sound About 200 people gathered in the Armenian quarter of the old city of Jerusalem on Monday to remember the slaying of more than one (m) million Armenians in 1915. Men, women and children marched through the streets of the old city, and stopped to lay wreaths and light candles in remembrance of those who died in their homeland. They were marking the day the Turkish government began a mass deportation of the country's large Armenian population. Jerusalem's Armenian community gathered here in the old part of the city to remember those who died during a mass deportation of Armenians from their homeland earlier this century. On April 24, 1915, a group of 235 Armenian intellectuals and political leaders were killed in an attack which the Armenian community blames on soldiers from the then crumbling Ottoman Empire. The group was accused of helping invading Russians during the First World War. The Turks then began deporting Armenians living in eastern Turkey to Syria. Turkey says 300-thousand Armenians died in the deportation. The Armenians claim 1.5 (m) million of their people were killed between 1915 and 1923. They say they are still waiting for an admission of guilt from Turkey. But the Turkish government rejects accusations of genocide. Easter is a significant weekend in the highly religious Armenian culture. In the 4th century, Armenia became the first nation to make Christianity its state religion. It's a feat the Armenians based in Jerusalem are still proud of. Today, there are many Armenian communities spread across the globe, with those who were deported earlier this century finding new homes. The Armenian people have a history of suffering at the hands of invading powers. The Israeli Education Minister called for the international community to recognise the suffering of the Armenian people. SOUNDBITE: (Hebrew) "In this day we the Jewish people, victims of the Holocaust, will test our attitude towards the pain of others. The Massacre that the Turkish people did in 1915 and 1916 is one of the worst things that happened during Modern History." SUPERCAPTION: Yossi Sarid, Israeli Education Minister Western Armenia was invaded by Ottoman Turks in 1405, while eastern Armenia was annexed by Russia in 1828, and was part of the Soviet Union from 1920 to 1991. You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/8186fcf884bac14834f4722f8224880c Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork