A number of organizations, museums, and monuments are intended to serve as memorials to the Armenian genocide and its over 1 million victims.
Turkey has campaigned against the establishment of such memorials. In 1983, Israeli diplomat Alon Liel reported that he was told by a representative of the Turkish Foreign Ministry that "Turkey will not accept the establishment of an Armenian Memorial in Israel. Establishing such a monument would jeopardize the relations between the two countries and might push them to the point of no return." [1]
The following table shows the major memorials around the world dedicated to the memory of the Armenian genocide victims.
Image | Memorial | Country | Location | Date |
---|---|---|---|---|
Huşartsan Memorial (Turkish: Taksim Ermeni Soykırımı Anıtı) | Turkey | Taksim Square, Allied-occupied Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul, Turkey) | 1919–1922 [2] [3] | |
Armenian Genocide Memorial | Mexico | Mexico City | 1930 | |
Memorial Chapel | Lebanon | Armenian Catholicossate of Cilicia, Antelias | 1938 | |
Armenian Genocide Memorial | Brazil | São Paulo | 1965 | |
Armenian Genocide Memorial | India | Kolkata, West Bengal | 1965 | |
Memorial khachkar | Armenia | Etchmiadzin Cathedral compound, Vagharshapat | 1965 | |
Armenian Genocide Memorial | United States | Watertown, Massachusetts | 1965 | |
Armenian Genocide Memorial | Lebanon | Bikfaya | 1965 | |
Tsitsernakaberd (Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute) | Armenia | Yerevan | 1967 | |
Montebello Genocide Memorial | United States | Montebello, California | 1968 | |
Marseille Genocide Memorial (avenue du Prado) | France | Marseilles | 1973 [4] | |
Armenian Genocide Memorial | Iran | Saint Sarkis Cathedral, Tehran | 1973 | |
Armenian Genocide Memorial | Iran | Holy Savior Cathedral, New Julfa, Isfahan | 1975 | |
Armenian Martyrs Memorial | Uruguay | St. Nerses Shnorhali Church, Montevideo | 1975 [5] | |
Armenian Martyrs' Monument | USA | Wesley Bolin Memorial Plaza, Phoenix, Arizona | 1978 [6] | |
Armenian Genocide memorial | United States | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | 1980s [7] | |
Armenian Genocide Memorial | Argentina | Buenos Aires | 1983 | |
Armenian Genocide Memorial Complex | Syria | Der Zor | 1990-2014 | |
Armenian Genocide Monument | Cyprus | Nicosia | 1990 | |
Armenian Genocide memorial | Syria | Cathedral of the Forty Martyrs, Aleppo | 28 May 1991 | |
Armenian Genocide memorial | Belgium | Ixelles | 1995 | |
Armenian Genocide Monument on Mt. Davidson | United States | San Francisco, California | 1997 | |
Armenian Genocide Memorial | Canada | Marcelin-Wilson Park, Montreal, Quebec | 1998 | |
Armenian Martyrs Memorial | United States | Providence, Rhode Island | 1999 | |
Holy Resurrection Church (site of mass grave in the Syrian desert discovered in the early 90s) [8] | Syria | Margadeh village | 1999 | |
Mother Arising Out of the Ashes, memorial statue | Armenia | Tsitsernakaberd Memorial Park, Yerevan | 2002 | |
Memorial to Père Komitas and victims of the Armenian Genocide | France | Jardin D'Erevan , Paris | 2003 | |
Marseille Genocide Memorial (avenue du 24 avril 1915) | France | Marseille | 2006 [9] [10] | |
Armenian Martyrs Memorial on the grounds of Saints Vartanantz Armenian Orthodox Church | United States | Chelmsford, Massachusetts | 2005 | |
Khachkar in Nelson-Mandela-Park | Germany | Bremen | 2005 | |
Lyon Armenian Genocide Memorial | France | Lyon | 2006 | |
Armenian Genocide Memorial | Cyprus | Larnaca | 2008 | |
Armenian Heritage Park | United States | Boston, Massachusetts | 2012 | |
Genocidemonument | the Netherlands | Almelo | 2014 | |
Armenian Genocide Monument | United States | California State University, Fresno, Fresno, California | 2015 | |
Khachkar memorial to the 1915 Armenian Genocide | Ireland | Christ Church Cathedral Dublin, Ireland | 2015 [11] | |
Mechelen Armenian Genocide Memorial | Belgium | Mechelen | 2015 | |
Memorial in memory of 1.5 million victims of the Armenian Genocide committed by the Government of Ottoman Empire in 1915-1923 Archived 6 December 2021 at the Wayback Machine | Israel | Petah Tikva | 2019 | |
The Eternal Flame | United Kingdom | Ealing, London | 2023 [12] [13] | |
Other notable monuments, squares, and memorials of the Armenian genocide include:
A khachkar or Armenian cross-stone is a carved, memorial stele bearing a cross, and often with additional motifs such as rosettes, interlaces, and botanical motifs. Khachkars are characteristic of medieval Christian Armenian art.
The Armenians in Lebanon are Lebanese citizens of Armenian descent. There has been an Armenian presence in Lebanon for centuries. According to Minority Rights Group International, there are 156,000 Armenians in Lebanon, around 4% of the population. Prior to the Lebanese Civil War, the number was higher, but the community lost a portion of its population to emigration. After surviving the Armenian genocide, and initially settling in shanty towns in Lebanon, the Armenian population gradually grew and expanded until Beirut became a center of Armenian culture. The Armenians became one of Lebanon’s most prominent and productive communities.
Kessab, also spelled Kesab or Kasab, is a town in northwestern Syria, administratively part of the Latakia Governorate, located 59 kilometers north of Latakia. It is situated near the border with Turkey on the slope of Mount Aqraa, 800 meters above sea level. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics, Kessab had a population of 1,754 in the 2004 census. Along with the surrounding villages, the sub-district of Kessab has a total population of around 2,500. Kessab has a dominant Armenian population, which dates back to the medieval ages.
The Armenians in Syria are Syrian citizens of either full or partial Armenian descent.
Kaymaklı Monastery is a ruined Armenian Apostolic monastery near Trabzon, Turkey.
Armenians in France are French citizens of Armenian ancestry. The French Armenian community is, by far, the largest in the European Union and the third largest in the world, after Russia and the United States.
Armenians in Belgium are citizens of Belgium of Armenian ancestry. The exact number of Armenians in the country is unknown, but is unofficially estimated to be about 40,000.
The Deir ez-Zor Camps were concentration camps in the heart of the Syrian desert in which many thousands of Armenian refugees were forced into death marches during the Armenian genocide. The United States vice-consul in Aleppo, Jesse B. Jackson, estimated that Armenian refugees, as far east as Deir ez-Zor and south of Damascus, numbered 150,000, all of whom were virtually destitute.
Saint Nicholas Monastery is an Armenian monastery built in the first millennium AD. Located in Old Jaffa, Tel Aviv, Israel, near the harbour and facing the Mediterranean, the monastery consists of a large multi-story complex that includes an Armenian church and living quarters. The monastery is under the jurisdiction of the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem, which rents out parts of the complex for residential and commercial purposes.
Armenian Genocide Martyrs' Memorial in Deir ez-Zor, Syria, was a complex dedicated to victims of the Armenian genocide. The construction of the Martyrs' Memorial started in December 1989 and was completed in November 1990. It was consecrated on 4 May 1991 by Catholicos Karekin II of the Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia. The memorial complex served as church, museum, monument, archive centre and exhibition. It was under the direct administration of the Armenian Prelacy, Diocese of Aleppo. Every year, on 24 April, tens of thousands of Armenian pilgrims from all over the world visited the Deir ez-Zor complex to commemorate the genocide victims, with the presence of their religious leaders.
My Son Shall Be Armenian is a 2004 Canadian documentary by Hagop Goudsouzian, who travels to Armenia and Syria with five other members of Montreal's Armenian community who lost relatives in the Armenian genocide, to speak with survivors.
An Armenian cross is a symbol that combines a cross with a floral postament or elements. The cross of Armenian Christianity is combined with the Christian cross, and this design was often used for high crosses (khachkar) – a free-standing cross made of stone and often richly decorated.
The Armenian Genocide Monument in Nicosia, Cyprus, is a monument dedicated to the martyrs and the survivors of the Armenian genocide of 1915–1923. It is located within the Armenian complex on Armenia street in Acropolis, Strovolos, which contains the Armenian Prelature building, the Sourp Asdvadzadzin cathedral, the Nareg Armenian School, the marble khachkar, the bust of Archbishop Zareh Aznavorian and the statue of Gregory of Nareg.
Armenian–Syrian relations are foreign relations between Armenia and Syria. Armenia has an embassy in Damascus and a consulate general in Aleppo. In 1997, Syria opened an embassy in Yerevan. Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa visited Armenia in March 1992.
The Council of Catholic Patriarchs of the Orient is an agency of the Catholic Church that meets the patriarchs of Eastern Catholic Churches and the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem. Permanent seat of the organisation is the Maronite Catholic Patriarchate of Antioch in Bkerke, Lebanon.
The Armenian eternity sign or Arevakhach is an ancient Armenian national symbol and a symbol of the national identity of the Armenian people. It is one of the most common symbols in Armenian architecture, carved on khachkars and on walls of churches.
Despite its small size, the Armenian-Cypriot community has plenty of monuments to show:
Lyon Armenian Genocide Memorial was erected in 2006 in central Lyon, France, in memory of the victims of the Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire in 1915 and the following years.