Ukraine Verkhovna Rada members honor Armenian Genocide victims with minute of silence

Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine honored the memory of the victims of the Armenian Genocide which took place in the Ottoman Empire in 1915, AnalitikaUA.net reports.

According to the report, the MP Nikolay Knyazhitskiy said that “today is a tragic day in the history of the Armenian nation and in the entire history of humanity.”

“100 years ago on this day, with the Armenian elite’s deportation, the extermination of actually a whole nation commenced. The Armenians and the Ukrainians lived side by side throughout centuries even before this tragedy. An Armenian was the first to die during the Revolution of Dignity. 52 representatives of that nation, which is the Ukrainians’ friend, were killed during the ATO,” Knyazhitskiy highlighted.

The Armenian Genocide has been recognized and condemned by Uruguay (1965), the Republic of Cyprus (1982), Argentina (1993), Russia (1995), Canada (1996), Greece (1996), Lebanon (1997), Belgium (1998), Italy (2000), Vatican (2000), France (2001), Switzerland (2003), Slovakia (2004), The Netherlands (2004), Poland (2005), Germany (2005), Venezuela (2005), Lithuania (2005), Chile (2007), Sweden (2010), Bolivia (2014). The Armenian Genocide has been recognized by the Vatican, the European Parliament and the World Council of Churches. 43 of 50 U.S. states have recognized and condemned the Armenian Genocide. Parliaments of several European countries have adopted laws criminalizing the denial of the Armenian Genocide.

Turkey, however, denies the fact of the Armenian Genocide.