Several events are scheduled across southern California on Thursday to commemorate the 99th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.
Areas like Glendale and East Hollywood -- among the largest Armenian diasporas in the world -- will hold a number of events, including a rally leading to Little Armenia, according to The Los Angeles Times.
A separate demonstration will be held outside of the Turkish consulate in Los Angeles. As the anniversary of the genocide approached, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed his condolences to victims of the massacre, though his country still declines to identify it as a genocide.
Starting in 1915, around 1.5 million Armenians were killed as the Ottoman Empire collapsed, the Times said.
Berdj Karapetian, chairman of the Glendale chapter of the Armenian National Committee of America, told The Glendale News-Press he wasn't satisfied with Erdogan's remarks.
"We do not see this as being something that is an adequate and appropriate acceptance of responsibility for the international crime that had been committed," Karapetian said.
When sharing his condolences, Erdogan said it is "indisputable that the last years of the Ottoman Empire were a difficult period, full of suffering for Turkish, Kurdish, Arab, Armenian and millions of other Ottoman citizens, regardless of their religion or ethnic origin," but did not use the term genocide.
Glendale Mayor Zareh Sinanyan also chided the prime minister's statement.
"I think his statement is evasive and insincere. It's not the condolences Armenians expect from the leader of the Republic of Turkey," Sinanyan told the Times.
California, in addition to 41 other states, have laws that recognize the massacre as a genocide, according to the Times.
