Yerevan--The leaders of France and Russia on Friday joined ceremonies marking the centenary of the massacre of some 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman forces, a hugely emotional event that remains a diplomatic minefield.
During a commemoration at a hilltop memorial in the Armenian capital Yerevan, French President Francois Hollande urged modern day Turkey to recognise the massacre as genocide, saying he bowed in memory of the victims.
"Important words have already been said in Turkey, but others are still expected, so that shared grief can become shared destiny," Hollande told an audience that also included the leaders of Cyprus and Serbia and delegates from some 60 countries.
President Vladimir Putin said Russia stood shoulder to shoulder with ex-Soviet Armenia, one of Moscow's closest allies.
"There... cannot be justification for mass murder of people," said Putin, who also described the killings as "genocide" in remarks that drew ire from Ankara.
Muslim Turkey, which was born out of the ashes of the Ottoman Empire, has refused to call the slaughter of Christian Armenians genocide.
Ankara concedes that up to 500,000 people were killed, but says this was mostly due to fighting and starvation during World War I, when Armenians rose up against their Ottoman rulers and sided with invading Russian troops.
Also on Friday, Turkey hosted leaders from the former Allied powers of World War I to pay tribute to the tens of thousands killed in the Battle of Gallipoli. Armenians have accused Ankara of timing the commemorations to deliberately overshadow the Yerevan ceremonies.
In Yerevan, leaders walked through the rain to lay flowers at a memorial commemorating the victims. Each put a yellow rose at the centre of a wreath resembling a forget-me-not, a flower that has become a symbol of the massacres.
Hundreds of thousands joined a procession to the genocide memorial -- the country's most visited landmark -- carrying candles and flowers to lay at the eternal flame.
AFP
