German president to attend mass commemorating Armenian Genocide

German President Joachim Gauck will attend the Holy Mass to be served on April 23 in Berlin to honor the memory of 1,5 million Armenians slaughtered at the hand of the Ottoman Empire in early 20th century.

Gauck is the first German president to ever attend such an event, Second German Television reports.

A group of German MPs had previously launched an initiative for the Bundestag to officially recognize the Armenian Genocide and German Empire’s historical responsibility in the implementation of the Genocide.

According to the newspaper Tagesspiegel, while the Greens and the Left Party are in favor of recognizing the massacre as genocide, the government and the coalition express some provisos.

Deutsche Welle had previously reported that the government’s human rights commissioner, Christoph Strässer, and Deputy Foreign Minister Michael Roth will travel to Yerevan to attend the Genocide centennial commemorative events.