NEWS

Workers’ Day was celebrated in Batman at a regional rally.

Workers’ Day celebrations in Istanbul were once again met with extreme security measures and brutal police intervention targeting organizations, groups and the public wanting to exercise their right to demonstrate. Taksim Square, Beşiktaş and main roads leading to the area were sealed off as 20 thousand police officers were placed on duty.

The Catholicosate of Cilicia in Antelias, Lebanon, the second largest centre of the Armenian Apostolic Church, has formally applied to the Constitutional Court of Turkey for the return of its properties in Sis (Kozan). The Catholicosate has demanded the return of its identified properties, and in the event of failure of identification, the payment of 100 Million TL compensation. This also constitutes the first instance where a case on the seizure of properties by the State will be ruled by the Constitutional Court.

According to the ‘Freedom of the Press 2015’ report published by the US-based watchdog Freedom House, Turkey retained its place in the ‘not-free’ category. Turkey’s negative score increased to 65, placing it in 142nd place among 199 countries. The global situation in terms of press freedom is also deteriorating for the media.

On the 100th anniversary of the Genocide, a mausoleum in memory of Armenal Bakırcıyan, a leading member of TİKKO, the Liberation Army of the Workers and Peasants of Turkey, has been unveiled in the Nazımiye District of Dersim.

President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan, in an interview with the state television of Russia, expressed his views about Turkey-Armenia relations.

Surp Badarak mass in memory of April 24 has been held at the Turkey Armenian Patriarchal Church. Led by Deputy Patriarch Aram Ateşyan, the ceremony was also attended by EU Minister Volkan Bozkır. President Erdoğan’s message was also read at the ceremony where white doves symbolizing peace were released and bells were rung 100 times.

In his speech on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, President Obama used the expression “Medz Yeghern”, meaning “great disaster”. Describing 1915 as a “massacre”, Obama underlined the importance of “reckoning with the past”.

MTP (the Nationalist Turkey Party) and Turan Ocakları lay black wreath in front of Agos this morning.