People visiting the Armenian ‘Genocide’ Memorial in Yerevan, Armenia.

Daily Star.com.lb

Commemorations of the 1915 Armenian genocide kicked off early Sunday across Lebanon. The Traffic Management Center tweeted that a demonstration took off from the Antelias Square to the town’s main highway. The
Armenian Tashnag Party also held a ceremony in the Metn district east
of Beirut, the state-run National News Agency reported. Several
officials, including Tashnag leader MP Hagop Pakradounian, former social
affairs minister Salim al-Sayegh and Free Patriotic Movement MP Ibrahim
Kanaan took part in the event.

April 24 marks 101 years since the start of the genocide, recognized by millions of Armenians across the world. Around
1.5 million Armenians were slaughtered by the Ottoman Turks during WWI,
an event widely considered as “the first genocide in the 20st century,”
as has been described by Pope Francis.

A large influx of Armenians came to Lebanon after this massacre, who now making up roughly four percent of the population.

A
day earlier, around 200 Armenian-Lebanese youths protested outside the
Turkish embassy near Beirut to demand Ankara recognize the 1915 Armenian genocide.

Turkey, however, rejects the term, saying they were casualties caused by the civil unrest in the Ottoman Empire.

Hundreds of thousands of Armenians marched in Beirut one year ago to mark the Armenian genocide centennial.