Prime Minister of Turkey Ahmet Davutoglu has addressed Armenians over the Genocide of 1915. According to him, representative of various nationalities and religious who lived side-by-side for centuries experience terrible sufferings in the last years of the Ottoman Empire, Milliyet said.
Turkey's prime minister said a ceremony would be held in Istanbul to commemorate Armenians killed a century ago by Ottoman Turks and again issued condolences to their descendants.
In his conciliatory message released days ahead of the April 24 centenary commemorations, Davutoglu however, stopped short of the calling the killings a genocide and criticized efforts to press Turkey to recognize the slaughter as such.
"To reduce everything to a single word, to load all of the responsibility on the Turkish nation ... and to combine this with a discourse of hatred is legally and morally problematic," Davutoglu said. "History must not become a political weapon," he said.
"We once again respectfully remember Ottoman Armenians who lost their lives during the deportation of 1915 and share the pain of their children and grandchildren," Davutoglu said in his message.
To recall, Armenia is marking the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide in Ottoman Turkey on April 24. Turkey still denies the Genocide of 1.5 million of Armenians.