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Syrian Armenians honour memory of Ottoman Empire massacre victims
Syrian Armenians commemorated Tuesday the massacre of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire in 1915.
A ceremony was held in the city of Deir az-Zour, 465 kilometres northeast of Damascus, and a visit was made to the victims' graves.
More than 15,000 Armenians from several countries attended the mass held by the Armenian Patriarch, Kreikin II, and the Armenian Archbishop in Lebanon, Aram I Keshishian, on Monday to remember the victims.
Armenians accuse Turkey of genocide in Armenia when between 600,000 and 1.5 million people - historians' estimates vary - were said to have been slaughtered during a campaign in 1915-1923 to force them out of eastern Turkey.
Turkey says the killings did not amount to genocide. But France and Italy
have passed a law recognizing the Armenian genocide.
Armenian, Assyrian and Hellenic Genocide News Archives