Yerevan, June 8 (CTK special correspondent) – Czech President Milos Zeman paid respects to the victims of the massacre of Armenians in 1915 by Ottoman Turkey at the genocide memorial where he laid a wreath and visited the museum of genocide yesterday.
Zeman also planted a tree in the zone and left there a plaque calling the massacre a genocide.
Turkey has refused to recognise the Armenian genocide in 1915, considering the use of the term itself punishable.
However, the genocide has been acknowledged by about 20 countries, including Russia, Slovakia and France, as well as the European Parliament and most recently by Germany.
The Czech Republic has not officially done so.
Zeman arrived for Armenia on Tuesday evening.
The visit to the memorial was the first part of his programme. This will be followed by his meeting his Armenian counterpart Serzh Sargsyan, a speech he will deliver at a business seminar and a visit to the parliament.
Zeman called the massacre a genocide during Sargsyan’s visit to Prague in January 2014.
The Presidential Office then said it was Zeman’s private view.
The Czech Republic condemns what happened in 1915, but it is of the view that this should be still an affair for historians.
Armenia says the massacre claimed up to 1.5 million lives. Turkey says the number is exaggerated and the killing was caused by a civil war, not by a genocide.
Germany recently called the massacre a genocide, which has provoked Turkey’s angry reaction.
