Don't attend Sourb Khach mass, urge Armenian NGOs

A group of Armenian youth organizations have addressed a call to all Armenians worldwide, urging not to take part in a mass to be served in Sourb Khach Church (Saint Cross) on Akhtamar Island, Lake Van, eastern Turkey, on September 19.

The group that includes 8 organizations will at 6 pm on August 22 held a march to Tsitsernakaberd - the hilltop memorial in Yerevan dedicated to the victims of the Armenian Genocide in 1915 by the Ottoman Empire.

"According to the data at our disposal about 6000 Armenians have booked tickets and are going to attend that show-program organized in the homeland occupied by Turkey. Well aware of all that being anti-Armenian, considering any Armenian's participation in that event as an unconscious pro-Turkish activity we require all Armenians not to go and not to participate in that event that mocks Armenians. Any Armenian who wants to attend it must ask himself/herself: but where are the descendants, the offsprings of those who erected that wonderful building?" reads the statement.