Turkish PM shares ''pain'' in 1915 events

In a statement released by the Prime Minister's Office, Erdogan said ''April 24 carries "particular significance for our Armenian citizens and for all Armenians around the world."

Armenians in the Diaspora claim that up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed by Ottoman Turks around the time of World War I. Turkey denies that the deaths constituted genocide, saying those killed were victims of civil war and unrest.

Arguing that all ethnicities had a difficult period in the last years of the Ottoman Empire regardless of their religion, Erdogan called for a conscientious, fair and humanistic approach to understand all sufferings experienced in that era.

''The incidents of the First World War are our shared pain. To evaluate this painful period of history through a perspective of just memory is a humane and scholarly responsibility.''

Turkish historians across the country will discuss claims about the events of 1915 what Armenians call genocide at a symposium on Thursday. They will meet in the eastern province of Van where Armenians were deported from the Ottoman land after conflict in the province in 1915. The academics study findings of the international studies which were obtained from British, American and German archives during the two-day event.

Erdogan also stressed the importance of the freedom of thought in his statement which was released in eight different languages.

''In Turkey, expressing different opinions and thoughts freely on the events of 1915 is the requirement of a pluralistic perspective as well as of a culture of democracy and modernity.''

Turkish PM also expressed condolences on behalf of the Turkish state to the grandchildren of Armenians who lost their lives "in the context of the early twentieth century."

''It is with this hope and belief that we wish that the Armenians who lost their lives in the context of the early twentieth century rest in peace, and we convey our condolences to their grandchildren.''