President Serzh Sargsyan and RF President Vladimir Putin visited the Tsitsernakaber Memorial

Before the commencement of the official meetings and negotiations at the Presidential Palace, the RF President Vladimir Putin, who is in Armenia on a state visit, together with President Serzh Sargsyan visited the Tsitsernakaber Memorial and laid a wreath at the monument dedicated to the victims of the Mets Eghern.

The Director of the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute Hayk Demoyan handed to the President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan and President of Russia Vladimir Putin golden replicas of the medals which were issued in Petrograd with charity purposes, to help the survivors of the Armenian Genocide of 1915.

The medal depicts the coat of arms of the Russian Empire with the two-headed eagle and the traditional Armenian cross and carries the inscription which reads “From the Russians to the Armenians in the time of great peril.”

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Additional Information

In 1995, the State Duma of the Russian Federation adopted a resolution condemning the Armenian Genocide which reads:

“Based on irrefutable historical facts which attest to the extermination of Armenians on the territory of Western Armenia from 1915 to 1922 and, in accordance with the following Conventions adopted by the United Nations:

Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, December 9, 1948;

Convention on the Non-Applicability of Statutory Limitations to War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity, November 26, 1968;

Aspiring to restore the humanitarian traditions of the Russian State and,

Emphasizing that through the initiative of Russia, the Great European Powers already in 1915 characterized the actions of the Turkish Empire against the Armenian people as a "Crime Against Humanity" and,

Noting that the physical extermination of the fraternal Armenian people in its historical homeland was aimed at destroying Russia;

The State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation:

Condemns the perpetrators of the extermination of Armenians from 1915 to 1922;

Expresses its deep sympathy to the Armenian people and recognizes April 24 as a day of remembrance for the victims of the Genocide.”

In 2001, in the framework of his official visit to Armenia, President of Russia Vladimir Putin visited also the Museum-Institute of the Armenian Genocide and made an inscription in the Book of Honorary Guests. The message states: “Russia has always regarded pain and tragedy of the Armenian nation as its own. I bow to the memory of the victims of the Armenian Genocide. Vladimir Putin.”