YEREVAN, April 23. /TASS/. An annual torchlit procession in memory of the 1915 Armenian Genocide victims is being held in central Yerevan on Sunday.

The event is being aired live by local television channels.

"These authorities have surrendered Artsakh (unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh republic - TASS)," Eduard Sharmazanov, one of the opposition leaders, a member of the Republican Party and former parliament speaker, told journalists. "We must understand why the genocide happened. Because back in 1915 many opted for concessions hoped to be spared. They were not back then and will not be today."

Before the procession, participants burned the flags of Azerbaijan and Turkey.

Young people wearing T-shirts with Nagorno-Karabakh’s symbols marched with lit torches along Yerevan’s central streets to the memorial to the genocide victims. Around 20,000 people, mostly the youth, are taking part.

1915 Armenian genocide

During and after the First World War, the Ottoman Empire's government systematically exterminated its minority Armenian subjects in some provinces of their historic homeland located in the territory, which is incorporated in the present-day Turkey.

Mass purges took place then and were implemented by two separate methods — a sweeping destruction of the able-bodied male population through massacre and forced labour, and the deportation of women, children and the elderly on death marches to the Syrian Desert.

Various estimates suggest that the loss of lives in the Armenian nation stood at around 1.5 million.

A number of countries, including Russia, have officially recognized the events in the Ottoman Empire in the early 20th century as Armenian Genocide.

April 24, when around 1,000 Armenians were arrested and then killed in Constantinople in 1915, is marked in as Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day.