Updated

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan says his nation is ready to "confront" the nation's history of killing ethnic Armenians nearly a century ago, but has stopped short of admitting it was genocide.

Erdogan on Tuesday also reiterated a call for Armenia and Armenians living abroad to participate in research with Turkey to document precisely what happened.

Historians estimate that up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed by Ottoman Turks around the time of World War I, an event widely viewed by scholars as the first genocide of the 20th century. Turkey denies that the deaths constituted genocide.

Erdogan's announcement came a week after he issued condolences to descendants of Armenians killed. A prominent American-Armenian group rejected Erdogan's message, demanding that Turkey admit that genocide happened.