A SERIES of events commemorating victims of genocide in Armenia will be held at St Albans Abbey over the following weeks to mark Holocaust Remembrance Day.

An exhibition featuring the mass killing and subsequent survival of Armenian people takes place from Saturday, January 26, to Saturday, February 9.

The opening day will be marked by a special service at 11.30am in the Lady Chapel to remember victims of the genocide.

The St Albans Cathedral Study Centre is hosting a study day on Armenia on Saturday, February 16, including subjects as diverse as the Khachkars (stone crosses), ancient and modern history.

The events have been organised by the abbey's North Transept justice and peace committee in conjunction with the Armenian Church Council of Great Britain.

More than 1.5 million Armenians were the victims of the first genocide of the 20th Century in 1915.

They were rounded-up and slaughtered by members of the Ottoman Empire, although the world refused to recognise it at the time.

In 1936, Hitler justified his own genocidal intentions against Jews, asking: "Who now remembers the Armenians?"

The Armenian genocide has now been officially recognised by the European Union and Canada but Turkey still denies the tragedy.

About three million Armenians live outside their native country in places such as Russia, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Western Europe, North America and Australia.

However, the desire to return to their homeland is as strong for many Armenians as it is for many Jews to return to Israel.

Armenia is a land-locked republic in the Caucasus with a population of just over 2.5 million.

It was the first country to adopt Christianity as the official religion in 201AD and has been independent since 1991, yet is formally part of the Soviet Union.

There are numerous links between Armenia and St Albans.

The city's first Catholic MP Alexander Raphael, who served as the sheriff of London in 1829, was Armenian.

Armenian priest Reverend John Hovsepian served under the former Bishop of St Albans, the Right Reverend Robert Runcie, who himself visited Armenia in 1979.

Two years previously, the Supreme Catholicos of All Armenians, Vasgen I, visited St Albans as a guest of the Archbishop of Canterbury.