Tsitsernakaberd is a memorial dedicated to the victims of the
Armenian GenocideThe Armenian Genocide , also known as the Armenian Holocaust, the Armenian Massacres and, by Armenians, as the Great Calamity , was the deliberate and systematic destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during and just after World War I...
; it is located on a hill overlooking
YerevanYerevan is the capital and largest city of Armenia and one of the world's oldest continuously-inhabited cities. It is situated on the Hrazdan River, and is the administrative, cultural, and industrial center of the country...
,
ArmeniaArmenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia...
. Every year on April 24, hundreds of thousands of
ArmeniansThe Armenians are a nation and ethnic group which originated in the Caucasus and the Armenian Highland. It is estimated that there are 8 million Armenians around the world. There is a large concentration of Armenians in the Caucasus, especially in Armenia, and there is a significant presence in...
gather here to remember the victims of the 1915 Armenian Genocide that took place in the
Ottoman EmpireThe Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State , also known by its contemporaries as the Turkish Empire or Turkey , was an empire that lasted from 1299 to November 1, 1922 The Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State (Ottoman Turkish: دَوْلَتِ عَلِیَّهِ عُثْمَانِیَّه Dawlet-il ʿAliyyat-il ʿOs̠māniyye, Modern Turkish:...
carried out by the Turkish government.
("fortress of small swallows") is an
agglutinativeIn linguistics, agglutination is the morphological process ofadding affixes to the base of a word. Languages that use agglutination widely are called agglutinative languages. These languages are often contrasted with fusional languages and isolating languages...
compoundIn linguistics, a compound is a lexeme that consists of more than one stem. Compounding or composition is the word-formation that creates compound lexemes...
noun in Armenian composed of the roots ("small
swallowThe swallows and martins are a group of passerine birds in the family Hirundinidae which are characterised by their adaptation to aerial feeding...
") and ("fortress") with the agglutinating infix <ա>.
The memorial sits on one of three hills along the
Hrazdan RiverThe Hrazdan is a major river of Armenia. It starts at the northwest extremity of Lake Sevan and flows south through the Kotayk marz and Armenia's capital, Yerevan. It then joins the Aras River along the border with Turkey. A Hydro-electric plant is located on the Hrazdan river...
that carry the name Tsitsernakaberd, and was the site of what was once an Iron Age fortress.
Tsitsernakaberd is a memorial dedicated to the victims of the
Armenian GenocideThe Armenian Genocide , also known as the Armenian Holocaust, the Armenian Massacres and, by Armenians, as the Great Calamity , was the deliberate and systematic destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during and just after World War I...
; it is located on a hill overlooking
YerevanYerevan is the capital and largest city of Armenia and one of the world's oldest continuously-inhabited cities. It is situated on the Hrazdan River, and is the administrative, cultural, and industrial center of the country...
,
ArmeniaArmenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia...
. Every year on April 24, hundreds of thousands of
ArmeniansThe Armenians are a nation and ethnic group which originated in the Caucasus and the Armenian Highland. It is estimated that there are 8 million Armenians around the world. There is a large concentration of Armenians in the Caucasus, especially in Armenia, and there is a significant presence in...
gather here to remember the victims of the 1915 Armenian Genocide that took place in the
Ottoman EmpireThe Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State , also known by its contemporaries as the Turkish Empire or Turkey , was an empire that lasted from 1299 to November 1, 1922 The Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State (Ottoman Turkish: دَوْلَتِ عَلِیَّهِ عُثْمَانِیَّه Dawlet-il ʿAliyyat-il ʿOs̠māniyye, Modern Turkish:...
carried out by the Turkish government.
Etymology
("fortress of small swallows") is an
agglutinativeIn linguistics, agglutination is the morphological process ofadding affixes to the base of a word. Languages that use agglutination widely are called agglutinative languages. These languages are often contrasted with fusional languages and isolating languages...
compoundIn linguistics, a compound is a lexeme that consists of more than one stem. Compounding or composition is the word-formation that creates compound lexemes...
noun in Armenian composed of the roots ("small
swallowThe swallows and martins are a group of passerine birds in the family Hirundinidae which are characterised by their adaptation to aerial feeding...
") and ("fortress") with the agglutinating infix <ա>.
History of the Site
The memorial sits on one of three hills along the
Hrazdan RiverThe Hrazdan is a major river of Armenia. It starts at the northwest extremity of Lake Sevan and flows south through the Kotayk marz and Armenia's capital, Yerevan. It then joins the Aras River along the border with Turkey. A Hydro-electric plant is located on the Hrazdan river...
that carry the name Tsitsernakaberd, and was the site of what was once an Iron Age fortress. Most of the above ground traces at this peak have since disappeared, but upon the smaller hill are still traces of a castle. Archaeological surveys took place in 2007, and excavations uncovered a wall that is hundreds of meters long and may still be seen in many places above ground. An alter cut from stone sits in the middle of a square at the edge of one of the hills, and large stones that weigh approximately 2 tons are still visible that cover graves from the second millennium BC. Apartments were later built along the hills during Roman times, and were built over with other structures during medieval years. Nearby are also the remains of a very large building with a cave.
Construction
Construction of the memorial began in 1966 (during Soviet times) in response to the 1965 Yerevan demonstrations during which one million people demonstrated in Yerevan for 24 hours to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Genocide. It was completed in 1968.
Design
The 44 meter stele symbolizes the national rebirth of Armenians. 12 slabs are positioned in a circle, representing the
12 lost provincesWestern Armenia , also referred to as Byzantine Armenia, later Turkish Armenia, or Ottoman Armenia is a term coined following the division of Greater Armenia between Byzantine Empire and Persia in 387 AD.-History:After the death of Armenian king Arshak III in 390 AD, Western Armenia was governed...
in present day
TurkeyTurkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey
, is a Eurasian country that stretches across the Anatolian peninsula in Western Asia and Thrace in the Balkan region of southeastern Europe...
. In the center of the circle, at a depth of 1.5 meters, there is an eternal flame.
Along the park at the memorial there is a 100 meter wall with names of towns and villages where massacres are known to have taken place.
Armenian Genocide Museum
The Armenian Genocide Museum opened its doors in 1995, concurrently commemorating the eightieth anniversary of the Genocide. The Museum structure, planned by architects S. Kalashian, A. Tarkhanyan and sculptor F. Araqelyan, has a unique design.
During the decennial activity the Museum received many visitors including schoolchildren, college students and an unprecedented number of tourists both local and abroad.
The museum provides guided tours in Armenian, Russian, English, French and German.
The Republic of Armenia has made visiting the Armenian Genocide Museum part of the official State protocol and many foreign official delegations have already visited the Museum. These delegations have included,
Pope John Paul IIPope John Paul II , born Karol Józef Wojtyła served as Supreme Pontiff of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death almost 27 years later. His was the second-longest pontificate; only Pope Pius IX served longer...
, President of the Russian Federation
Vladimir PutinVladimir Vladimirovich Putin was the second President of Russia and is the current Prime Minister of Russia as well as chairman of United Russia and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Union of Russia and Belarus...
, President of the Republic of France
Jacques ChiracJacques René Chirac served as the President of France from 17 May 1995 until 16 May 2007. As President he also served as an ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra and Grand Master of the French Légion d'honneur. Chirac was the second-longest serving President of France , behind François Mitterrand...
, and other well-known social and political figures.
The impressive two-story building is built directly into the side of a hill so as not to detract from the imposing presence of the Genocide Monument nearby. The roof of the Museum is flat and covered with concrete tiles. It overlooks the scenic Ararat Valley and majestic Mount Ararat.
The first floor of the Museum is subterranean and houses the administrative, engineering and technical maintenance offices as well as Komitas Hall, which seats 170 people. Here also are situated the storage rooms for museum artifacts and scientific objects, as well as a library and a reading hall. The Museum exhibit is located on the second floor in a space just over 1000 square meters. There are three main indoor exhibit halls and an outer gallery with its own hall.
The Genocide Monument is designed to memorialize the innocent victims of the first Genocide of the 20th century. The Genocide Museum’s mission statement is rooted in the fact that understanding the Armenian Genocide is an important step in preventing similar future tragedies, in keeping with the notion that those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it.
Trivia
- Boris Yeltsin
Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin was the first President of the Russian Federation, serving from 1991 to 1999....
, the first president of the Russian FederationThe President of the Russian Federation is the head of state, supreme commander-in-chief and holder of the highest office within the Government of Russia. Executive power is split between the President and the Prime Minister, who is the head of government...
, left a comment in the visitor guestbook stating that "The genocide of the Armenian people in 1915–22 is a global disgrace."
See also
- 1965 Yerevan Demonstrations
- Armenian Genocide
The Armenian Genocide , also known as the Armenian Holocaust, the Armenian Massacres and, by Armenians, as the Great Calamity , was the deliberate and systematic destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during and just after World War I...
- Genocide Remembrance Day
Genocide Remembrance Day is a national holiday in Armenia and is observed by Armenians in dispersed communities around the world on April 24. It is held annually to commemorate the victims of the Armenian Genocide from 1915 to 1923...
- List of Armenian Genocide memorials
External links