10.12.2024


Members of the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe visited the Armenian Genocide Memorial on December 10, accompanied by Vladimir Vardanyan, Chairman of the Standing Committee on State and Legal Affairs of the RA NA, member of the aforementioned committee.

The delegation was welcomed by Dr. Edita Gzoyan, Director of the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute (AGMI), who provided an overview of the memorial’s history and significance. During the visit, Dr. Gzoyan highlighted the stories behind three khachkars (cross-stones) dedicated to Armenians who perished in the massacres of Sumgait, Kirovabad, and Baku. She also shared the poignant accounts of five freedom fighters from the Artsakh conflict, drawing connections between the Armenian Genocide and the ongoing persecution of Armenians. Dr. Gzoyan further elaborated on the historical and legal aspects of the Artsakh situation, strongly condemning Azerbaijan’s actions.

Dr. Gzoyan also guided the visitors to the Memory Wall presenting its history. Behind the wall, in special niches, are small urns filled with soil taken from the graves of various foreign public figures, political leaders, intellectuals, and missionaries who raised their voices in protest against the mass massacres and genocide of Armenians carried out by the Ottoman government in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The members of the PACE Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights laid a wreath at the memorial commemorating the martyrs of the Armenian Genocide. They then placed flowers at the Eternal Fire and honored the memory of the innocent victims of the Armenian Genocide with a minute of silence.