Ambassador Markarian Comments on 90 th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide on CNN International
On April 24, 2005, as thousands of Armenian-Americans were gathering in New York City 's Times Square for commemoration of the 90 th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, Ambassador Tatoul Markarian joined CNN International to present the historical and political significance of the recognition of the Armenian Genocide.
Ambassador Markarian's live appearance on CNN was an opportunity to reassert Armenia's position on the Genocide before a global audience of hundreds of millions, and it capped the efforts to provide worldwide coverage of the of the 90 th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide by major U.S. and world media outlets.
The CNN International news program first presented video footage from Yerevan 's Tsitsernakaberd Genocide Memorial Complex. The host anchor, Rosemary Church, noted that hundreds of thousands of Armenians flocked to the Genocide Memorial to pay tribute to the one and a half million victims of the 1915 Genocide, which continued to be denied by Turkey .
Following the report from Yerevan , Ambassador Markarian spoke from CNN's Washington , D.C. studio, commenting on the anniversary and Turkey 's continuing denial of the Armenian Genocide. Nothing can justify the murder of millions of Armenian children, women, and men, the Ambassador said. Turkey 's continuing cover up is a proof of its inability to face its history as it devotes all its domestic and foreign policy toward rejecting its history, he noted. As a result, Ambassador Markarian continued, Turkey denies not only its past but also the present, by refusing to establish diplomatic relations with Armenia , maintaining blockade of Armenia , and taking a unilateral pro-Azeri position in the Nagorno Karabakh conflict.
