Can't imagine Turkey is very happy about this. The genocide never happened, you know.

http://www.boston.com/dailynews/114/world/Vatican_approves_Armenian_and_:.shtml

Vatican approves Armenian and Ukrainian martyrs

By Associated Press, 4/24/2001 09:54

VATICAN CITY (AP) The Vatican on Tuesday proclaimed as martyrs an Armenian bishop killed in 1915 and 26 Ukrainians who died in Communist persecutions after World War II.

The announcement was the first step toward beatification and possible sainthood.

In the case of Bishop Ignazio Choukrallah Maloyan, archbishop of the Armenian church in Mardin, Turkey, the recognition came on the same day Armenians commemorate the deaths of 1.5 million of their countrymen in what they say was part of the Ottoman Empire's campaign to force them out of eastern Turkey.

Turkey says the death toll is inflated and that Armenians were killed or displaced as the empire tried to quell unrest.

The Vatican's citation said the Armenian church was at that time ''devastated by a violent persecution that took numerous victims'' among clergy and faithful.

It said the choice of date for the announcement was a coincidence.

The Ukrainians eight bishops, 14 priests, three nuns and a layman were martyred during anti-church campaigns by Ukraine's former communist rulers, the Vatican said.

-- Anonymous, April 24, 2001

Answers

http://www.boston.com/dailynews/114/world/Armenians_mark_86th_annivers ar:.shtml

Armenians mark 86th anniversary of mass deaths

By Avet Demurian, Associated Press, 4/24/2001 21:23

YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) Heads bowed in respect, a solemn procession of Armenians filed past a monument and eternal flame in Yerevan on Tuesday to mark the 86th anniversary of the beginning of mass killings of Armenians in Turkey.

Armenians say 1.5 million of their people died in an Ottoman Empire campaign to force them from eastern Turkey between 1915 and 1923. Turkey says the death count is inflated, and that Armenians were killed or displaced as the Ottoman Empire tried to quell civil unrest.

Armenia's government has asked Turkey to apologize as a condition for establishing diplomatic relations. Turkey insists the killings did not amount to genocide, a term used for the systematic annihilation of a racial, political or cultural group.

Memorial activities began Monday evening. Student activists, carrying torches lighted from a burning Turkish flag, marched from Opera Square near the city center to the memorial on a hill in Yerevan.

In a conciliatory note, Armenian politicians and religious leaders were accompanied to the monument Tuesday by Turkish intellectual Ali Ertan, who heads a group of Turks who want their government to recognize the killings. Ertan laid flowers on the monument.

The deaths began before April 24, but the date was chosen for memorial services because it marks the day in 1915 when Turkish authorities executed a large group of Armenian intellectuals and political leaders, accusing them of helping the invading Russian army during World War I. Armenia was then part of the Ottoman Empire.

On Wednesday, the Canadian Senate is scheduled to review two measures on recognizing the Armenian genocide. Similar laws are under consideration in the United States, Austria, Germany and other countries.

Argentina, Greece, France, Cyprus, Russia and several other countries already have officially recognized the historic events as genocide, along with eleven U.S. state governments.

-- Anonymous, April 25, 2001