Protests in Yerevan in 1965

The protests in Yerevan took place on April 24, 1965 , the 50th anniversary of the Armenian genocide in Yerevan , the capital of the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic in what was then the Soviet Union . The aim of the demonstrations was the recognition of the genocide of 1915. The protests are seen as the first step in the fight to come to terms with the genocide.

On that day, for the first time in the history of the Soviet Union, over 100,000 protesters gathered and held a 24-hour demonstration in front of the Opera House to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the genocide in the Ottoman Empire . They asked the Soviet government to officially recognize the crimes committed by the Young Turks and to set up a memorial in the capital of Armenia.

April 24, 1915 was the day the Ottoman government began the mass arrest of the Armenian elite . Nationalist slogans such as “Just solution to the Armenian question” concerning western Armenia, Karabakh and Nakhchivan could be read on the posters from 1965 .

With the shouts of “our country, our countries”, the main demonstration marked the first public awakening of Armenian self-confidence in Soviet Armenia . The government of the Soviet Union took note of the protesters' concerns and commissioned a memorial to the genocide. The Zizernakaberd Memorial was completed in 1967.

Following the example of this demonstration, similar protests followed in the Armenian diaspora around the world. Since then April 24 has been celebrated as Genocide Remembrance Day. From the day of the protests until today, Armenians and others have been visiting the site to end Turkey's denial of the Armenian genocide .

Web links

April 24 in Armenia

Individual evidence

^ Svante E. Cornell: Small nations and great powers: a study of ethnopolitical conflict in the Caucasus . Curzon, Richmond 2001, ISBN 978-0-7007-1162-8 , pp. 63 .
^ Jacob D. Lindy: Beyond invisible walls: the psychological legacy of Soviet trauma, East European therapists and their patients . Brunner-Routledge, New York 2001, ISBN 978-1-58391-318-5 , pp. 192 .
↑ ^a ^b Conny Mithander, John Sundholm & Maria Holmgren Troy: Collective traumas: memories of war and conflict in 20th-century Europe . PIEP Lang, Brussels 2007, ISBN 978-90-5201-068-7 , pp. 33 .
^ Louise I. Shelley : Policing Soviet society . Routledge, New York 1996, ISBN 978-0-415-10470-8 , pp. 183 .
^ Mark R. Beissinger : Nationalist mobilization and the collapse of the Soviet State . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2002, ISBN 978-0-521-00148-9 , pp. 71 .

[1] Svante E. Cornell: Small nations and great powers: a study of ethnopolitical conflict in the Caucasus . Curzon, Richmond 2001, ISBN 978-0-7007-1162-8 , pp. 63 .

[2] Jacob D. Lindy: Beyond invisible walls: the psychological legacy of Soviet trauma, East European therapists and their patients . Brunner-Routledge, New York 2001, ISBN 978-1-58391-318-5 , pp. 192 .

[töahk-3] Conny Mithander, John Sundholm & Maria Holmgren Troy: Collective traumas: memories of war and conflict in 20th-century Europe . PIEP Lang, Brussels 2007, ISBN 978-90-5201-068-7 , pp. 33 .

[4] Louise I. Shelley : Policing Soviet society . Routledge, New York 1996, ISBN 978-0-415-10470-8 , pp. 183 .

[5] Mark R. Beissinger : Nationalist mobilization and the collapse of the Soviet State . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2002, ISBN 978-0-521-00148-9 , pp. 71 .