Centennial of genocide

Avet Demourian has a Time article about the Armenian genocide:

The presidents of Russia and France joined other leaders at ceremonies (photo) commemorating the massacre, a hundred years ago, of one and a half million Armenians by the Ottoman Turks, an event which remains a diplomatic sore point for both sides.
The annual 24 April commemorations mark the day when some two hundred and fifty Armenian intellectuals were rounded up in what is regarded as the first step of the massacres. An estimated one and a half million died in the massacres, deportations, and forced marches that began in 1915, as Ottoman officials worried that the Christian Armenians would side with Russia, their enemy in World War One.
The event is widely viewed by historians as genocide, but modern Turkey, the successor to the Ottoman Empire, vehemently rejects the charge, saying that the toll has been inflated, and that those killed were victims of civil war and unrest. On the eve of the centennial, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan insisted that his nation’s ancestors never committed genocide.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, French President Francois Hollande, and other dignitaries assembled at the Tsitsernakaberd memorial complex in the capital, Yerevan.
Each leader walked along the memorial with a single yellow rose and put it into the center of a wreath resembling a forget-me-not, a flower that was made the symbol of the commemoration.
“We will never forget the tragedy that your people went through,” Hollande said.
France is home to a sizeable Armenian community. Among the French-Armenians at Yerevan was ninety-year old singer Charles Aznavour, who was born in Paris to a family of massacre survivors.
Russian President Vladimir Putin used his speech to warn of the dangers of nationalism as well as “Russophobia”, in a clear dig at the West-leaning government in the Ukraine.
Earlier this month, Turkey recalled its ambassador to the Vatican after Pope Francis described the killings as genocide. The European Parliament has also triggered Turkey’s ire by passing a non-binding resolution to commemorate “the centenary of the Armenian genocide”.
Armenian President Serge Sarkisian expressed hope that recent steps to recognize the massacre as genocide will help “dispel the darkness of a hundred years of denial.” Sarkisian also welcomed Armenians from Turkey who were preparing to gather in Istanbul’s Taksim Square to honor the dead, calling them “strong people who are doing an important thing for their motherland”.

Rico says that, just like the Germans, the Turks deny reality...