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Armenians commemorate WWI massacres by Ottoman Turks

Armenians commemorate WWI massacres by Ottoman Turks

Armenia

Thousands of Armenians on Saturday visited hilltop memorial in capital Yerevan to mark 106th anniversary of massacre of Armenians during WWI vy Ottoman Turks. US President Joe Biden is expected to designate this massacre a genocide. This move is likely to rile Turkey, the modern state having the legacy of the Ottoman Empire.

Armenians have long sought to have the killings of up to 1.5 million of their kin as the Ottoman Empire was collapsing internationally recognised as genocide.

The claim is rejected by Turkey but finds support from many countries across the world.

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Yerevan has also demanded financial compensation from Ankara and the restoration of property rights for the descendants of those killed in the 1915-1918 massacres.

Turkey denies the killings' genocidal nature, arguing that 300,000 to 500,000 Armenians and at least as many
Turks died in civil strife when Armenians rose up against their Ottoman rulers and sided with invading Russian troops.

Anger against Turkey simmered among Armenians as crowds of people carrying candles and flowers joined Saturday the annual procession to remember the victims of the massacres, which Armenians call Meds Yeghern -- the Great Crime.

'Old wound bleeds'

Armenia is traumatised by last year's defeat in a war with Azerbaijan over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, in which Ankara backed its ally Baku.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan called the war -- that erupted in September and ended six weeks later with a Russian brokered ceasefire -- "the Azeri-Turkish aggression which sought to annihilate the Armenian trace" in Karabakh.

"Turkey's expansionist foreign policy, and the territorial aspirations towards Armenia are the evidence of the revival of their genocidal ideology," he said in a statement.

"Armenophobia is in the essence of Pan-Turkism, and today we can see its most disgusting manifestations in Azerbaijan as fostered by the authorities of that country."

(With inputs from agencies)