responsibility, possibly shared guilt for the genocide.”
Germany deployed soldiers who took part in “planning and, in part, carrying out the deportations”, he said.
Ankara on Wednesday recalled its ambassador to Vienna in response to Austrian lawmakers’ decision to condemn the massacre as “genocide”.
Turkey has said up to 500,000 people were killed, but mostly due to war and starvation, and rejects the use of the term “genocide”.
US President Barack Obama on Thursday would only go so far as to describing the World War I massacres as “terrible carnage”.
In an unusual ceremony on Thursday, the Armenian Church conferred sainthood on those massacred by Ottoman forces a century ago, in what was believed to be the biggest canonisation service in history.
The ceremony outside Armenia’s main cathedral at Echmiadzin, close to Yerevan, ended at 7:15 pm local time, or 19:15 according to the 24-hour clock, to symbolise the year when the massacres started.
“During the dire years of the genocide of the Armenians, millions of our people were uprooted and massacred in a premeditated manner, passed through fire and sword, tasted the bitter fruits of torture and sorrow,” Karekin II, the head of the Armenian Apostolic Church said at the ceremony.
“The canonisation of the martyrs of the genocide brings life-giving new breath, grace and blessing to our national and ecclesiastical life.”
Ex-Soviet Armenia and the huge Armenian diaspora worldwide have battled for decades to have the World War I massacres at the hands of the Ottoman forces between 1915 and 1917 recognised as a targeted genocide.
But modern Turkey, which was born out of the ashes of the Ottoman Empire, has refused to do so, and relations remain frozen to this day.
Ankara says 300,000 to 500,000 Armenians and at least as many Turks died in civil — rather than religious — strife when they say Armenians rose up against their Ottoman rulers and sided with invading Russian troops.
In a rare interview with Turkish television broadcast on Thursday, President Sarkisian expressed hope the two countries could mend fences.
“It is obvious that a reconciliation between the two peoples will have to come about through Turkey recognising the genocide,” he told CNN-Turk. Ahead of the ceremonies, Turkey kicked up a diplomatic storm, condemning growing “racism” in Europe. Earlier this month Ankara also recalled its envoy to the Vatican after Pope Francis described the killings as “the first genocide of the 20th century.”
Turkey will on Friday host world leaders to mark the 100th anniversary of the start of the Battle of Gallipoli, a day earlier than the actual start of fighting.
Sarkisian has accused Ankara of deliberately “trying to divert world attention” from the Yerevan commemorations.