Yerevan: The Armenian Church prepared on Thursday to canonise up to 1.5 million Armenians massacred by Ottoman forces as tensions over Turkey’s refusal to recognise the killings as genocide reached boiling point.
The ceremony, which is believed to become the biggest canonisation service in history, comes ahead of commemorations expected to see millions of people including heads of state on Friday mark 100 years since the start of the killings. The Armenian Apostolic Church announced the canonisation service for the “martyrs of the Armenian Genocide”, calling for a “prayerful participation in this historic event”.
The service will be held in Armenia's main church, Echmiadzin, an austere fourth-century edifice believed to be the Christian world's oldest cathedral. The ceremony will run from 1.00 pm to 7:15 pm to symbolise the year when the massacres started during WWI. “Today’s canonisation unites all Armenians living around the globe,” an Armenian librarian said.
