George Clooney acknowledges Armenian genocide at memorial

George Clooney honoured the Armenians who died during the country’s genocide on Sunday (24Apr16) by joining President Serzh Sargsyan at a memorial in Yerevan.
The two men visited the Genocide Memorial for the 101st anniversary of the atrocities a day after the movie star addressed local media about America’s ignorance of the killings at the hands of the Ottoman Empire, now Turkey.
“It took a long and hard battle to finally call things by their names,” he said. “You cannot deny what happened.”
The slaying of more than 200 Armenian intellectuals on 24 April, 1915 is considered the start of the massacre considered by historians as the first genocide of the 20th century.
An estimated 1.5 million Armenians were slaughtered, but Turkish officials have always dismissed the killings were a genocide, insisting the death toll has been inflated.
During his time in Armenia, Clooney also presented the first Aurora Prize for humanitarian effort to Marguerite Barankitse, who saved thousands of lives and cared for orphans and refugees amid the Burundi civil war.
He said, “By recognising Marguerite Barankitse’s courage, commitment and sacrifice, I am hopeful that she can also inspire each one of us to think about what we can do to stand up on behalf of those whose rights are abused and are in most need of our solidarity or support.”
President Barack Obama declined on Friday to refer to the 1915 massacre as a genocide, instead calling the massacre the first mass atrocity of the 20th century.
Meanwhile, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan issued a message commemorating Armenians who died in 1915, without making any specific reference to the massacre.