Yerevan, April 25 (RHC)-- Armenia has held a memorial ceremony to mark the centenary of the massacre of a great number of Armenians during the World War I. Friday's event saw dignitaries and world leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and his French counterpart, Francois Hollande, gather at the Tsitsernakaberd memorial complex in the Armenian capital, Yerevan.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said: "The events of 1915 shocked the entire world and in Russia (the events) were considered as its own grief”. The international community must do everything it can in order to ensure the tragic events of the past never happen again, so that all people can live in peace and harmony without knowing the horrors caused by religious hostility and aggressive nationalism and xenophobia."

Armenians believe that up to 1.5 million Armenian Christians were systematically slaughtered in eastern Turkey through mass killing, forced relocation and starvation, a process that began in 1915 and took place over several years during the World War I and the breakup of the Ottoman Empire.

Ankara rejects the term "genocide" and says 300,000 to 500,000 Armenians, and at least as many Turks perished between 1915 and 1917, in what the Turkish government sees as the "casualties" of World War I.