PUTIN TO ATTEND 1915 COMMEMORATION IN YEREVAN
Hurriyet Daily News, Turkey
March 12 2015
Nerdun Hacıoglu – MOSCOW
Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced that he will attend
the ceremony in Yerevan to commemorate the 1915 events.
According to a statement issued by the Russian Presidency, Putin
told his Armenian counterpart Serzh Sarkisian by telephone on March
12 that he would join the commemoration ceremony scheduled for April
24 in Yerevan.
Armenia says up to 1.5 million Ottoman Armenians were killed in a
genocide starting from 1915. Turkey denies that the deaths amounted
to genocide, saying the death toll of Armenians killed during mass
deportations has been inflated and that those killed in 1915 and 1916
were victims of general unrest during World War I.
Russia is among around 20 nations that recognise the killings as
genocide.
News of Putin’s call to Sarkisian comes as speculation that he is
ill swirls online following his cancelation of a number of meetings.
Speaking to AFP, Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed the claims,
ascribing media reports of the leader’s ill-health to “March madness.”
Armenia is Russia’s most loyal ally in the Caucasus, but ties have
been strained since January when a Russian serviceman killed a family
of seven in Armenia, sparking mass protests.
March/12/2015