Rally in Times Square to mark 100 years since Armenian genocide

MIDTOWN (WABC) -- Several thousand people gathered in Times Square Sunday for a rally commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide.

Events have been taking place in Armenia and around the world since Friday, which marked 100 years since the start of the Armenian genocide in 2015.

It is estimated 1.5 million Armenians were killed by Ottoman Turks in 1915.

Senator Bob Menendez was among the expected speakers at the Times Square rally.

Those at the rally demanded that the U.S. government acknowledge the deaths during World War I as genocide.

The New York rally is sponsored by the Armenian Genocide Centennial Committee of America.

Turkey's president lashed out at country leaders who have recognized the killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks as genocide on the centenary of the massacres.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday accused France, Germany, Russia and Austria - whose leaders or parliaments recently described the killings as genocide - of supporting "claims constructed on Armenian lies." He accused the United States of siding with Armenia although President Barack Obama stopped short of using the term in his annual message.

Erdogan said: "They should first, one-by-one, clean the stains on their own histories."

The mass killing of Armenians is widely viewed as the first genocide of the 20th century. Turkey denies that the deaths constituted genocide.

(Some information from the Associated Press.)