On 24th April 2012, the Armenian community of India, Church Committee Members, students, teachers and staff of Armenian College and Philanthropic Academy assembled at the Armenian Holy Church of Nazareth, Kolkata to commemorate the 97th Anniversary of Armenian Genocide, where 1.5 million innocent victims were massacred, Information service of Armenian College and Philanthropic Academy informs. Very Rev. Fr. Khoren Hovhannisyan, Pastor of Armenians in India and Manager of Armenian College and Philanthropic Academy presided over the Requiem Service which was offered for the ‘repose of souls’ of the martyrs of the Armenian Genocide of 1915, at the marble memorial erected in memory of the genocide victims in the churchyard. The faithful prayed for the peace of the souls of myriads of martyrs and bowed to lay flowers at the memorial. The memorial was erected in India in the year 1965 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Armenian Genocide. In the Pontifical Kondak of 17th August, 1964, Vazken I of blessed memory, the Catholicos of All Armenians, proclaimed, “… as the Patriarch of All Armenians, at the threshold of the 50th anniversary of the great tragedy in our history, we propose and direct: a) that the forthcoming year be declared for all our churches and our people a year of national mourning and prayer…”. The marble memorial in the northern side of the Mother Church of Holy Nazareth was erected by the Armenian community of India, subsequent to this historic Pontifical Kondak.

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