On April 19, a Holy Mass was served on the occasion of the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide and in memory of the 1.5 million martyrs at the Saint Ishtvan Church in Debresen, which is the second largest city of Hungary. The Holy Mass was followed by the placement and consecration of a cross-stone near the church.

In his opening remarks, Deputy Mayor of Debresen Sabolks Komoley mentioned that the Armenian Genocide took place a century ago, taking the lives of 2.5 million Armenians in Anatolia and Cilicia in the course of seven years, meaning more than half of the population was killed simply because they were Armenian and Christian. People were unaware of this and only knew about it from the book “Forty Days of Musa Dagh”.

Vice-President of the Armenian Autonomy Alex Avanesyan expressed gratitude to Debresen Municipality and the people for supporting the placement of the cross-stone.

The placement and consecration were followed by performances of musical numbers by Komitas Choir.