24 April 2004, 18:53
Monument to genocide victims dismantled in Georgian town before unveiling
The Khachkar monument was dismantled late in the evening of April 23 in Akhaltsikhe, a Georgian town populated by Armenians. Khachkar is a stone monument in the form of a cross in memory of victims of the Armenian Genocide in Turkey in 1915. It was to be officially unveiled on April 24, the day of memory of the Genocide victims.
Before the monument was dismantled, policemen had detained Ludwig Petrosian, who was in charge of the work on the unveiling of Khachkar, and held him in a police department for 4 hours. The monument was dismantled on the instruction of the Georgian president's plenipotentiary in the region of Samtskhe-Javakheti Nikoloz Nikolozashvili (former Georgian ambassador to Armenia), Mr Petrosian said. The Akhaltsikhe town mayor's office had approved the unveiling of Khachkar, he assured.
Source: REGNUM News Agency
