Russian President Vladimir Putin has used the word “genocide” to refer to the mass killings of Armenians at the end of World War I under Ottoman rule, Russia`s Interfax news agency reported.

In a statement released on the Kremlin`s website on the occasion of event in Moscow called “A World without Genocide,” the Russian leader called the 1915 events a “mournful date, related to one of the most horrendous and dramatic events in human history, the genocide of the Armenian people."

Putin said Russia sees the mass killings of Armenians as its own pain and sorrow and said Russians bow their heads before the memory of all victims of the tragedy after 100 years.
He underlined that mass elimination of people because of their ethnic group has no justification and vowed that his country will not change its objective and consistent stance towards the 1915 events.

“The international community has a duty to do everything possible to ensure that such atrocities never happen anywhere again. Future generations of Armenians and other peoples in that region must live in a world of harmony and never have to know the horrors that come from the incitement of religious enmity, aggressive nationalism and xenophobia,” Putin stated.

President Putin is scheduled to travel to the Armenian capital of Yerevan to attend ceremonies marking the centennial of what Armenians claim is a genocide of Ottoman Armenians in eastern Anatolia during World War I. However, Putin`s spokesperson Dimitri Peskov said Putin`s visit to the Armenian capital of Yerevan to attend the April 24 ceremonies marking the centennial of the killings and forced deportations will not damage ties between Turkey and Russia.

The Armenian government and diaspora have been working for a greater recognition of the 1915 events as “genocide” due to the centennial of the events this year. The pope described the mass killings of Armenians under Ottoman rule at the end of World War I as “the first genocide of the 20th century,” with his statement prompting Turkey to summon the Vatican`s envoy and recall its own. The European Parliament also called on Turkey to recognize the killings of Armenians during the final years of the Ottoman Empire as “genocide.” And in another recent blow, political parties in the Austrian parliament signed a declaration recognizing the massacre of the Armenians as “genocide.”

Germany`s parliament is set to adopt a motion using the word genocide on Friday. However, US President Barack Obama is not expected to use the word "genocide" in his traditional April 24 statement to commemorate the centenary of the mass killing of Armenians in 1915.

Turkey accepts that many Armenians died during the World War I years, but says the death toll offered by the Armenians, up to 1.5 million people, is inflated, and denies that the deaths resulted from an act of genocide. Ankara says Turks were also killed when Armenians took up arms in pursuit of an independent state in collaboration with Russian forces that were invading Eastern Anatolia at the time. Armenia, on the other hand, accuses the Ottoman authorities of the time of systematically massacring large numbers of Armenians, then deporting many more, including women, children, the elderly and the infirm, in terrible conditions on so-called death marches.

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