Local representatives of the Turkish government said Friday that claims of a genocide against Armenians were inaccurate and unhelpful.
The comments, in an interview with KTLA Channel 5, responded to a local and massive daylong commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the massive slaughter of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey.
The activities included speeches, rallies and a march that ended in front of the Turkish consulate on Wilshire Boulevard. More than 130,000 participated, according to an estimate from the Los Angeles Police Department.
SCENES: Commemorations take place worldwide
Armenians and others have characterized what happened as a genocide -- a grim precursor and model to genocides that followed, including in Nazi Germany and Rwanda. Some scholars have put the Armenian death toll at about 1.2 million, with some estimates as high as 1.5 million.
In the KTLA interview, Raife Gülru Gezer, the Turkish consulate general in Los Angeles, took issue with the widely accepted death toll.
“The number is debatable, frankly speaking,” she said, adding that there were not that many Armenians living in the region at the time.
FULL COVERAGE: 100th anniversary of Armenian genocide
Gezer said the events of 1915 needed to be understood in a broader historical context of conflict and suffering among combatants on different sides. To limit the focus of attention to a single year, 1915, “is doing an injustice in not fully analyzing the background” that led to the “tragic events” of that year.
“It is an historical issue,” she said. “We have lived together with the Armenian for around 800 years.”
She maintained her government’s objection to the application of the word genocide, calling it a “legal term” that is being “used loosely” and incorrectly to describe what happened in 1915.
“We do not deny the suffering of the Armenians and we do not deny the fact that hundreds of thousands of Armenians did die during the First World War,” Gezer said.
Gezer also objected to the unchallenged acceptance of the Armenian narrative in Los Angeles, insisting that it led to a shutting down of dialogue and that Turks were being denied their rights: “Their voices are being silenced.”
No one from the consulate returned calls from The Times.
Participants in the day’s events voiced a common, persistent theme, calling for recognition of the Armenian deaths as a genocide.
Many held nearly identical azure signs that thanked various countries for recognizing the Armenian genocide. President Obama has not used the word "genocide" in connection with the massacres since coming to office — and his name was greeted with boos at a ceremony before the march.
Some signs voiced forceful messages: "We Demand Justice" and "Turkey Must Pay."
The procession was multigenerational, with small children riding atop parents’ shoulders; older women linked arms for balance as they moved forward.
One group chanted a traditional song, which competed with the whir of helicopters overhead.
The commemoration affected traffic across swaths of Los Angeles all day long, first in the East Hollywood environs, then later, further west and south on Wilshire Boulevard.
President Barack Obama was the target of some demonstrators. He has not referred to the deaths of Armenians as a genocide since taking office. His reluctance to use the word is in apparent deference to Turkey, a key American ally in that part of the world.
Obama on Thursday said the massacre was the "first mass atrocity of the 20th century." Although he has not used the term genocide while in office — after pledging to do so as a candidate for president — he defended his record in recognizing what happened.
“I have consistently stated my own view of what occurred in 1915, and my view has not changed," Obama said in a statement. "A full, frank and just acknowledgment of the facts is in all our interests. Peoples and nations grow stronger, and build a foundation for a more just and tolerant future, by acknowledging and reckoning with painful elements of the past."
The Turkish foreign ministry was less conciliatory in its reponse than its L.A. delegation, calling references to genocide "a propaganda campaign."
The ministry was responding Friday to word that Russian president Vladimir Putin used genocide to describe the events of 1915:
"We reject and condemn the labelling of the 1915 events as 'genocide' by the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, despite all our warnings and calls. Such political statements, which are flagrant violation of law, are null and void for Turkey." Russia's "insistence on wrongdoing will not help peace, prosperity and welfare in our region."
Veronica Rocha contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2015, Los Angeles Times4:22 p.m.: Updated with estimates on participants and comment from the Turkish consulate general.
11:34 a.m.: Updated with more details from the march.
10:33 a.m.: Updated with march starting and adds comments from more participants.
9:44 a.m.: Updated with ceremony beginning in Little Armenia and adds comments from officials and participants.
9:02 a.m. Updated with comments from march participants.
This post was first published at 7:08 a.m.
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