Armenian museum reopens in Jerusalem’s Old City

By ILAN BEN ZION
Associated Press

JERUSALEM (AP) — A 19th-century orphanage in Jerusalem’s Armenian Quarter has reopened its doors as a museum, a hundred years after taking in scores of children whose parents were killed in the Armenian genocide. The Mardigian Museum documents the community’s rich, if pained, history. It showcases Armenian culture and the centuries-long connection to the holy city. It is also a memorial to around 1.5 million Armenians killed by the Ottoman Turks around World War I. Many scholars consider the killings the 20th century’s first genocide. Turkey denies the deaths constituted genocide, saying the toll has been inflated and that those killed were victims of civil war and unrest.