ANKARA, Turkey – Turkey's president has accused Armenia of planning to "insult Turkey" during upcoming ceremonies marking the centenary of the massacre of Armenians.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Wednesday that Turkey would instead be "discussing peace" when it hosts events commemorating the centennial of the World War I Gallipoli campaign. He rejected accusations that Turkey planned the ceremonies April 23-25 to compete with the April 24 events in Yerevan.
Historians estimate that up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed by Ottoman Turks, an event viewed as the first genocide of the 20th century. Turkey denies that the deaths constituted genocide.
Officials say President Barack Obama will stop short of calling the 1915 massacre a genocide.
Erdogan said: "I would not like to hear such a thing from Obama."
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