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Wednesday, 23 April 2008 |
Jerusalem April 24 - Armenia was the first state to accept the Gospel nationwide. The evangelization of Armenia started with the work of the Apostle Jude and Bartholomew. Armenians have remained faithful to the faith, and suffered persecution because of this.
The worst calamity happened when, after World War I, the Ottoman Empire purposely attacked Armenians, deporting many of them, and causing the death of about one and a half million of them. The Armenian genocide started on April 24, 1915, with the arrest of some 250 Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in Istanbul. From that day on, the Ottoman government used violent means to uproot entire families, force them to long marches in the desert, perpetrated sexual and psychological abuse. One third of the Armenian population of the time dies during the genocide. Turkish authorities, the government that followed the Ottoman Empire in Turkey, refuse to refer to the events as 'genocide'. Their opinion is that Armenians were attacked militarily because of their support of the Russian armies.
Every year, the Armenian Church and society mark the 24 of April as a national day to remember the victims of the genocide. The day is observed in Armenia, but also by Armenian communities living in the diaspora.
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