The Armenian Genocide Memorial complex (, ''Hayots tseghaspanutyan zoheri hushahamalir'', or Ծիծեռնակաբերդ, '' Tsitsernakaberd'') is

Armenia Armenia, officially the Republic of Armenia, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of West Asia. It is a part of the Caucasus region and is bordered by Turkey to the west, Georgia (country), Georgia to the north and Azerbaijan to ...

's official memorial dedicated to the victims of the

Armenian genocide The Armenian genocide was the systematic destruction of the Armenians, Armenian people and identity in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Spearheaded by the ruling Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), it was implemented primarily t ...

, built in 1967 on the hill of Tsitsernakaberd () in

Yerevan Yerevan ( , , ; ; sometimes spelled Erevan) is the capital and largest city of Armenia, as well as one of the world's List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest continuously inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Yerev ...

. Every year on 24 April, the Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day, thousands of

Armenians Armenians (, ) are an ethnic group indigenous to the Armenian highlands of West Asia.Robert Hewsen, Hewsen, Robert H. "The Geography of Armenia" in ''The Armenian People From Ancient to Modern Times Volume I: The Dynastic Periods: From Antiq ...

gather at the memorial to commemorate the victims of the genocide. The people who gather in Tsiternakaberd lay fresh flowers out of respect for all the people who died in the Armenian genocide. Over the years, from around the world, a wide range of politicians, artists, musicians, athletes, and religious figures have visited the memorial. The Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute (Հայոց ցեղասպանության թանգարան-ինստիտուտ ''Hayots tseghaspanut'yan tangaran-institut'') was opened in 1995.

History

The memorial is set on one of three hills along the

Hrazdan River The Hrazdan (, ) is a major river and the second largest in Armenia. It originates at the northwest extremity of Lake Sevan and flows south through the Kotayk Province and Armenia's capital, Yerevan; the lake in turn is fed by several streams. In ...

that carry the name Tsitsernakaberd (literally "

swallow The swallows, martins, and saw-wings, or Hirundinidae are a family of passerine songbirds found around the world on all continents, including occasionally in Antarctica. Highly adapted to aerial feeding, they have a distinctive appearance. The ...

's fortress"), and was the site of what was once an

Iron Age The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...

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 altar cut from stone stands in the middle of a square at the edge of one of the hills, and large stones that weigh approximately two tons are still visible that cover graves from the second millennium BC. Apartments were later built along the hills during

Roman times In modern historiography, ancient Rome is the Roman civilisation from the founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingd ...

, and were built over with other structures during medieval years. Nearby are also the remains of a large cave.

Construction

The idea of a genocide monument has its origin in the early 1960s when Hakob Zarobian was designated first secretary of the Communist Party of Armenia in 1962. On 16 July 1964, historians

Tsatur Aghayan Tsatur Pavel Aghayan (; – 3 December 1982) was a Soviet-Armenian historian, a professor at Yerevan State University, an academician of the Armenian Academy of Sciences, the editor of the journal '' Lraber Hasarakakan Gitutyunneri'', and a renow ...

(the director of the Armenian branch of the Institute of Marxism–Leninism), Hovhannes Injikian (head of the section of Oriental Studies of the Academy of Sciences), and John Kirakosyan (deputy head of the section of ideology of the Central Committee of the party) sent a highly confidential letter to the Presidium of the Communist Party of Armenia, where they made a series of proposal to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the genocide. Point 8 said: "To build the memorial of the victims of the Armenian people in World War I on account of the income of the population. The memorial must symbolize the rebirth of the Armenian people." On 13 December 1964, Zarobian sent a report-letter to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, where the grounds and the meaning of the anniversary and the construction of the "monument dedicated to the Armenian martyrs sacrificed in World War I" were noted. The Council of Ministers of Soviet Armenia on March 16, 1965 adopted a resolution about "Building a Monument to Perpetuate the Memory of the Victims of the Yeghern of 1915." The construction of the monument began in 1966, during Soviet times, in response to the

1965 Yerevan demonstrations The 1965 Yerevan demonstrations took place in Yerevan, Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic, Armenia on 24 April 1965, on the 50th anniversary of the Armenian genocide. It is said that this event constitutes the first step in the struggle for the r ...

during which one hundred thousand people demonstrated in Yerevan for 24 hours to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the genocide. They demanded the Soviet authorities officially recognise it as a genocide. The memorial is designed by architects Arthur Tarkhanyan, Sashur Kalashyan and artist Hovhannes Khachatryan and was completed in November 1967.

Design

The Eternal Flame - Armenian Genocide Memorial in Yerevan

The 44-meter

stele A stele ( ) or stela ( )The plural in English is sometimes stelai ( ) based on direct transliteration of the Greek, sometimes stelae or stelæ ( ) based on the inflection of Greek nouns in Latin, and sometimes anglicized to steles ( ) or stela ...

symbolizes the national rebirth of Armenians. Twelve slabs are positioned in a circle, representing the twelve lost provinces in present-day

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

. In the center of the circle, at a depth of 1.5 meters, there is an

eternal flame An eternal flame is a flame, lamp or torch that burns for an indefinite time. Most eternal flames are ignited and tended intentionally, but some are natural phenomena caused by natural gas leaks, peat fires and coal seam fires, all of which ca ...

dedicated to the 1.5 million people killed during the Armenian genocide. Along the park at the memorial there is a 100-meter wall with the names of towns and villages where massacres and deportations are known to have taken place. On the rear side of the commemoration wall, plates have been attached to honor the people who committed themselves to relieving the distress of the survivors during and after the genocide, among them Johannes Lepsius,

Franz Werfel Franz Viktor Werfel (; 10 September 1890 – 26 August 1945) was an Austrian-Bohemian novelist, playwright, and poet whose career spanned World War I, the Interwar period, and World War II. He is primarily known as the author of '' The Forty ...

, Armin T. Wegner, Henry Morgenthau Sr.,

Fridtjof Nansen Fridtjof Wedel-Jarlsberg Nansen (; 10 October 1861 – 13 May 1930) was a Norwegian polymath and Nobel Peace Prize laureate. He gained prominence at various points in his life as an explorer, scientist, diplomat, humanitarian and co-founded the ...

Pope Benedict XV Pope Benedict XV (; ; born Giacomo Paolo Giovanni Battista della Chiesa, ; 21 November 1854 – 22 January 1922) was head of the Catholic Church from 1914 until his death in January 1922. His pontificate was largely overshadowed by World War I a ...

, Jakob Künzler and Bodil Biørn. An alley of trees has been planted to commemorate the genocide victims.

Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute

The Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute opened in 1995 on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the genocide. The structure of the museum, planned by architects Sashur Kalashian, Lyudmila Mkrtchyan and sculptor F. Araqelyan, has followed a unique design. Since opening, the museum has received tens of thousands of visitors including schoolchildren, college students and huge numbers of tourists from outside Armenia. The Republic of Armenia has turned visiting the museum into part of state protocol and many official foreign delegations have already visited the museum. These delegations have included

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II (born Karol Józef Wojtyła; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 16 October 1978 until Death and funeral of Pope John Paul II, his death in 2005. In his you ...

Pope Francis Pope Francis (born Jorge Mario Bergoglio; 17 December 1936 – 21 April 2025) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 13 March 2013 until Death and funeral of Pope Francis, his death in 2025. He was the fi ...

, President of the Russian Federation

Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who has served as President of Russia since 2012, having previously served from 2000 to 2008. Putin also served as Prime Minister of Ru ...

, Presidents of France

Jacques Chirac Jacques René Chirac (, ; ; 29 November 193226 September 2019) was a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. He was previously Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and 1986 to 1988, as well as Mayor of Pari ...

and Francois Hollande, and other well-known public and political figures. The museum contains historical documents and is open to the public for guided tours in Armenian, Russian, English, French, and German. The two-story building is built directly into the side of a hill so as not to detract from the 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 Mount Ararat, also known as Masis or Mount Ağrı, is a snow-capped and dormant compound volcano in Eastern Turkey, easternmost Turkey. It consists of two major volcanic cones: Greater Ararat and Little Ararat. Greater Ararat is the highest p ...

. 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 1,000 square meters in size. There are three main indoor exhibit halls and an outer gallery with its own hall. The Genocide Monument is designed to memorialize the victims. The Genocide Museum's mission is rooted in the understanding that the Armenian Genocide is important in preventing similar future tragedies, and in keeping with the notion that those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it. The institute also conducts academic research into the genocide and publishes books on the subject and a journal, ''International Journal of Armenian Genocide Studies''.

Gallery

File:Memorial trees planted at the Tsitsernakaberd (2).jpg, Row of memorial trees planted by foreign dignitaries File:Closeup of memorial trees at the Tsitsernakaberd.jpg, Closeup of a memorial tree File:Rowan williams garegin ii IMG 2506.JPG, Catholicos

Karekin II Catholicos Garegin II (, also spelled Karekin; born 21 August 1951) is the Catholicos of All Armenians, the supreme head of the Armenian Apostolic Church, since 1999. In 2013 he was unanimously elected the Oriental Orthodox head of the World Cou ...

and Archbishop

Rowan Williams Rowan Douglas Williams, Baron Williams of Oystermouth (born 14 June 1950) is a Welsh Anglican bishop, theologian and poet, who served as the 104th Archbishop of Canterbury from 2002 to 2012. Previously the Bishop of Monmouth and Archbishop of W ...

during a memorial ceremony File:Armenian Genocide Museum Yerevan courtesy of american times 18.jpg, Tower File:Tsitsernakaberd24.04.2009.JPG, 2009 File:Mother Arising Out of the Ashes.jpg, ''Mother Arising Out of the Ashes'', memorial statue (2002) File:Armenian Genocide Memorial in Yerevan 3.jpg, Memorial spire and its shadow File:Armenian Genocide Memorial in Yerevan 5.jpg, A man lays his remembrance at the memorial File:Armenian Genocide Memorial in Yerevan 9.jpg, Armenian Genocide Memorial File:Armenian Genocide Memorial in Yerevan 10.jpg, Front of memorial with Yerevan TV tower in background

References

Genocide.am – Photos of Tsitsernakaberd memorial
*

External links

About Armenian Genocide Museum

Official site

Armenian Genocide

Official Website of Armenian Genocide Centennial
{{Authority control 1967 establishments in the Soviet Union Armenian genocide commemoration Armenian genocide memorials Buildings and structures completed in 1967 Buildings and structures in Yerevan Genocide museums History museums in Armenia Monuments and memorials in Armenia Monuments and memorials built in the Soviet Union Museums in Yerevan