American reality television star Kim Kardashian and her sister Khloe visited on Friday the Tsitsernakabert memorial in Yerevan to the victims of the 1915 Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire.
The two celebrities of Armenian descent laid flowers and stood in silence by its eternal fire, paying their respects to some 1.5 million Armenians massacred by the Ottoman Turks. They did not talk to reporters afterwards.
The Kardashians were escorted to the hilltop memorial overlooking the city center and the adjacent Museum-Institute of the Armenian Genocide by its deputy director, Suren Manukian.
Speaking to RFE/RL’s Armenian service (Azatutyun.am), Manukian said they both seemed “quite well-informed” about details of the First World War-era mass killings and deportations. He said Khloe was particularly active in commenting on the subject.
“The memorial complex symbolizes not only historical memory but also survival and revival,” added Manukian. “I think they found the tour interesting.”
The visit to Tsitsernakabert, coming less than two weeks before official commemorations of the genocide centenary, was billed as the main highlight of the sisters’ first-ever trip to Armenia that began on Wednesday. In her social media posts closely followed by millions of people around the world, Kim Kardashian has repeatedly called for a greater international recognition of the Armenian genocide.
“Until this crime is resolved truthfully and fairly, the Armenian people will live with the pain of what happened to their families and the fear of what might happen again to their homeland,” she wrote in 2011.