Aram I, Catholicos of the Holy See of Cilicia, met with the lawsuit committee regarding the Catholicosate’s appeal to the Constitutional Court for the return of the Catholicosate’s properties in Sis (Kozan).

The Presidency of Religious Affairs has published its “2015 Performance Program”. The program plans to spend a total sum of 4 million TL within the scope of activities to prevent “corruption of morality”.

20 people detained during the May 1 demonstrations were arrested this morning following the completion of investigations.

A series of commemoration events and actions have been held in Dersim, Ankara, Antep and Adana on the 78th anniversary of “Tertele”, the Dersim Massacre. The centre of the commemoration in Dersim was the Seka Sure area, the site of mass graves in Hozat.

The Lawyers for Justice group has prepared a preliminary report on the rights violations that took place on May 1, Workers’ Day. The report states that 452 people were detained, that the duration of arbitrary detention had been extended, and that lawyers were prevented from receiving information regarding detentions. Rights’ violations continued in May 4 as the lawyers that gathered at the Çağlayan Court House to make a statement on May 1 along with unions, associations and mass organizations were met with brutal police intervention.

Workers’ Day was celebrated in Batman at a regional rally.

Workers’ Day celebrations in Istanbul were once again met with extreme security measures and brutal police intervention targeting organizations, groups and the public wanting to exercise their right to demonstrate. Taksim Square, Beşiktaş and main roads leading to the area were sealed off as 20 thousand police officers were placed on duty.

The Catholicosate of Cilicia in Antelias, Lebanon, the second largest centre of the Armenian Apostolic Church, has formally applied to the Constitutional Court of Turkey for the return of its properties in Sis (Kozan). The Catholicosate has demanded the return of its identified properties, and in the event of failure of identification, the payment of 100 Million TL compensation. This also constitutes the first instance where a case on the seizure of properties by the State will be ruled by the Constitutional Court.

According to the ‘Freedom of the Press 2015’ report published by the US-based watchdog Freedom House, Turkey retained its place in the ‘not-free’ category. Turkey’s negative score increased to 65, placing it in 142nd place among 199 countries. The global situation in terms of press freedom is also deteriorating for the media.

On the 100th anniversary of the Genocide, a mausoleum in memory of Armenal Bakırcıyan, a leading member of TİKKO, the Liberation Army of the Workers and Peasants of Turkey, has been unveiled in the Nazımiye District of Dersim.

President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan, in an interview with the state television of Russia, expressed his views about Turkey-Armenia relations.

Surp Badarak mass in memory of April 24 has been held at the Turkey Armenian Patriarchal Church. Led by Deputy Patriarch Aram Ateşyan, the ceremony was also attended by EU Minister Volkan Bozkır. President Erdoğan’s message was also read at the ceremony where white doves symbolizing peace were released and bells were rung 100 times.

In his speech on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, President Obama used the expression “Medz Yeghern”, meaning “great disaster”. Describing 1915 as a “massacre”, Obama underlined the importance of “reckoning with the past”.

MTP (the Nationalist Turkey Party) and Turan Ocakları lay black wreath in front of Agos this morning.

Today’s issues of the daily Cumhuriyet and Özgür Gündem newspapers have been published with Armenian headlines .

Rakel Dink, in the article titled ‘A Century of Genocide’ she wrote for the April 24, 2015, issue of Cumhuriyet newspaper, relates what befell her family and relatives in 1915, how she met Hrant Dink, and the struggles they put up together: Today, first at Balıklı, at my Çutak’s grave, then in Şişli, at Sevag’s grave, and finally, in Taksim Square, to commemorate the ones we lost during the 1915 Genocide, I will silently wait for this country to become free.

The German President Joachim Gauck spoke following mass held at the Berlin Cathedral in commemoration of the genocide of Armenians, Assyrians and Pontic Greeks. Gauck defined 1915 as genocide, and also underlined Germany’s role in the events.

100 Istanbul Bilgi University academicians have released a statement upon the administrative blocking of the conference titled ‘Armenian Genocide: Concepts and Comparative Perspectives’, declaring that they considered the blocking of the conference unacceptable in terms of academic and democratic freedoms.

President Erdoğan has made a joint statement with Iraq President Fuad Masum: “Armenia speaks as if our 100th anniversary Gallipoli commemorations are in retaliation. We have no such qualms.”