The delegation led by the Minister of Culture of Italy visits Armenian Genocide Memorial

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 22, ARMENPRESS. On February 22, the delegation led by the Minister of Culture of Italy, Gennaro Sangiuliano, visited the Armenian Genocide Memorial accompanied by the Deputy Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sports of the Republic of Armenia Alfred Kocharyan, the Head of the Department of Foreign Relations and Diaspora Arkadi Papoyan, the Ambassador of the Republic of Armenia to Italy Tsovinar Hambardzumyan and the Ambassador of Italy to Armenia Alfonso di Riso.

As ARMENPRESS was informed from the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute, Harutyun Marutyan, director of the AGMI, welcomed the guests and presented the history of the creation of the memorial complex. He also referred to the three khachkars (cross-stones) placed in the Tsitsernakaberd area in memory of the Armenians who fell victim to the massacres organized by the Azerbaijani government in the cities of Sumgait, Kirovabad (Gandzak), Baku at the end of the last century, and the stories of the five freedom fighters buried in the area of the memorial complex during the Artsakh war, stressing the connection between what happened and the Armenian Genocide.

Mr. Gennaro Sangiuliano laid a wreath at the memorial to the victims of the Armenian Genocide, then the guests placed flowers near the eternal fire and observed a minute of silence in memory of the innocent victims of the Armenian Genocide.

The guests also toured the Armenian Genocide Museum Institute, where they got acquainted with the permanent and temporary exhibitions accompanied by the senior tour guide of AGMI, Angel Tevekelyan.

At the end of the visit, Shushan Khachatryan, a senior researcher at the Armenian Genocide Museum Institute, presented the guests from Italy with the exclusive documents about Father Salvatore Lilli (1853-1895), in which Salvatore Lilli, as an eyewitness, also describes the Ottoman Empire's repressions against the Armenian population.