The tragedy of the Armenian people is our shared pain: Maria Zakharova

Maria Zakharova, official spokesperson of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, stated that in Russia the Armenian Genocide is perceived as its own tragedy, one that admits of no justification whatsoever.

She recalled that April 24 marks 111 years since the mass killings and deportations of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, which, according to historians’ estimates, claimed the lives of more than one and a half million people, while hundreds of thousands were driven from their homes and countless spiritual shrines and cultural monuments were destroyed.

Zakharova emphasized that modern Russia was among the first countries to officially recognize and condemn the Armenian Genocide, enshrining this in documents of the State Duma.