Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan led the ceremony the 100th anniversary of the genocide one and a half million Armenians during World War I. Sargsyan gloomy speech in front of a grand audience on Friday, under the clouds at the Armenian Genocide Monument near the capital Yerevan.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and French President Francois Hollande was among those present at the ceremony. They each put a flower bouquet of yellow roses in the main as a warning symbol of the tragedy.
Hundreds of thousands of people come to Yerevan, to commemorate the genocide, an event that has created dissent among the countries involved and their allies.
Turkey says Armenians were killed in battle during the Civil War where they were assisted by the Russians. Turkey says the number killed is far below the 1.5 million people. Turkey formally protest any country that calls genocide of Armenian
Turkey recalled its envoy to the Vatican earlier this month after Pope Francis called first Armenian genocide of the 20th century. US President Barack Obama issued a statement on Thursday, where he was commemorating the act of murder which he called a "terrible carnage and violence," but do not call it a genocide.
The statement angered groups of US-Armenian friendship, who commented that Obama should take a firmer stance. On Thursday, German President Joachim Gauck for the first time to call it a genocide, while recognizing that Germany bears some responsibility.
Gauck said worship services at the Cathedral of Berlin that as a wartime ally of the Ottoman Empire, the Germans participated in planning and execution deportation of Armenians.
"Women, men, children, and elderly expelled walk towards death, without shelter or food to the desert, burned alive, chased, beaten and shot to death," he said. "Crimes were planned and calculated perpetrated against the Armenians for one reason, because they are Armenians."
Armenian church gives santa status to the victims in Thursday's meetings in Echmiadzin, a town which provide protection for people who get away from genocide
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