YEREVAN, April 30. /ARKA/. Seven commemorative silver medals telling about the Armenian Genocide were issued today. The medals are part of the "1915" project, implemented by the design studio "47" together with the e Armenian Genocide Museum.

Seven silver commemorative medals depict pogroms of Armenians, expulsion and deportation, representatives of the Armenian intelligentsia and looted temples. Each of them contains separate fragments and symbols of the Armenian Genocide - from composer Komitas to the canonization of the victims of the Genocide.

"The commemorative medals also recall the countries that recognized and condemned the atrocity, the Armenian Diaspora and the surviving people. The silver coins and the attached book, placed in a wooden box, are an impressive and eloquent gift to any person who condemns the injustice," the project authors noted.

The Armenian Genocide is the first genocide of the 20th century. According to Armenian and many other historians, up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed starting in 1915 in a systematic campaign by the government of Turkey. Turkey has been denying it for decades.

The Armenian genocide has been recognized by dozens of countries. The first was Uruguay that did so in 1965. Other nations are Russia, France, Italy, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Poland, Lithuania, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland, Greece, Cyprus, Lebanon, Canada, Venezuela, Argentina, Portugal 49 U.S. states, except for the State of Mississippi. It has been recognized also by the Vatican, the European Parliament, the World Council of Churches and other international organizations. -0---