Mr. Obama says the alleged massacre of Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915 is a solemn moment that calls for reflection on the importance of historical remembrance and the work of reckoning with the past.

Mr. Obama says he has consistently stated his view on what happened in 1915 and that his view has not changed.

As a U.S. Senator and candidate for President, Mr. Obama described the killings of Armenians as "genocide” and said the U.S. government had a responsibility to recognise them as such.

But Mr. Obama shied away from that description as President, mainly out of deference to Turkey.

Turkey is a key U.S. partner and NATO ally that fiercely opposes the "genocide” label.

Meanwhile in Ankara, Turkey’s President said that his nation’s ancestors never committed genocide.

Addressing a meeting billed as an international peace summit on the eve of the day marking the centenary of the massacre of Armenians on Thursday, Recep Tayyip Erdogan also accused the international community of indifference toward refugees and wanting migrants to drown at sea.

Britain’s Prince Charles and the Prime Ministers of Australia and New Zealand were among the dignitaries attending the event, which was part of a series of ceremonies marking the centenary of the World War I Gallipoli campaign. Hundreds of Mr. Erdogan’s supporters also attended, boisterously cheering and applauding his words and giving the event the feel of a campaign rally six weeks before Turkey’s elections.

Turkey, however, has insisted that the toll has been inflated, and that those killed were victims of civil war and unrest, not genocide.

Turkey has lobbied fiercely to prevent countries from recognising the massacres as genocide. It recalled its ambassador to the Vatican after Pope Francis used the term and its ambassador to Austria after lawmakers in Vienna did so too.

"The Armenian claims on the 1915 events, and especially the numbers put forward, are all baseless and groundless,” Mr. Erdogan said. "I say, we’re ready to open our military archives. We have no fear, no worries on this subject. Our ancestors did not persecute.”

Mr. Erdogan’s comments came as European Union leaders convened in Brussels for an emergency summit after hundreds of migrants drowned in the Mediterranean in the space of a few days. Discussion included laying the ground for military action against traffickers.

"As you know, those who flee on boats in the Mediterranean, the Aegean they drown in those seas. And what does (the international community) say? ‘Let them drown. Let them die,’ Mr. Erdogan said.

Mr. Erdogan added: "Aren’t they human beings? Where’s the Universal Declaration of Human Rights?”

 

(AP)