--- title: German President Calls 1915 Armenian Massacre A "Genocide" description: German President Joachim Gauck labels Armenian massacre a "genocide" ahead of Friday's 100th commemoration of the 1915 Armenian killings. canonical: https://time.com/3834015/armenian-genocide-german-president-turkey/ author: Sabrina Toppa article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-04-24T05:03:55.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-31T08:22:55.460Z article:section: World og:title: German President Refers to 1915 Armenian Massacre 'Genocide' og:description: Joachim Gauck's chose of words has not pleased Turkey. og:url: https://time.com/3834015/armenian-genocide-german-president-turkey/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt453dc1f8c1d46111/6987eca23c16396d92455a9d/ap680138763392.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: German President Joachim Gauck delivers a speech at the Berlin Cathedral Church in Berlin, Germany, April 23, 2015 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: German President Refers to 1915 Armenian Massacre 'Genocide' twitter:description: Joachim Gauck's chose of words has not pleased Turkey. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt453dc1f8c1d46111/6987eca23c16396d92455a9d/ap680138763392.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # German President Enrages Turkey by Referring to 1915 Armenian 'Genocide' by [Sabrina Toppa](/author/sabrina-toppa/) ## Sabrina Toppa Apr 24, 2015 5:03 AM CUT  German President Joachim Gauck delivers a speech at the Berlin Cathedral Church in Berlin, Germany, April 23, 2015 German President Joachim Gauck delivers a speech at the Berlin Cathedral Church in Berlin, Germany, April 23, 2015Michael Sohn—AP by [Sabrina Toppa](/author/sabrina-toppa/) ## Sabrina Toppa Apr 24, 2015 5:03 AM CUT German President Joachim Gauck on Thursday angered Turkey by [labeling](http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-32437633 "undefined") the deaths of 1.5 million Armenians in 1915 as a “genocide” ahead of Friday’s centennial commemoration of the event, which took place during World War I. A day before the German parliament debates using the term “genocide” for the Armenian massacre, Gauck said, “The fate of the Armenians stands as exemplary in the history of mass exterminations, ethnic cleansing, deportations and yes, genocide, which marked the 20th century in such a terrible way.” However, the contentious term has sparked outcry within Turkey, which has a significant Armenian minority and officially contends that both sides suffered a heavy death toll during the war. The successor state of the Ottoman Empire, as the territory was known during 1915, has never formally acknowledged the Armenian massacre as a genocide. On Wednesday, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Dautoglu urged German Chancellor Angela Merkel to exclude the genocide label in parliamentary debates. “To reduce everything to a single word, to put responsibility through generalizations on the Turkish nation alone … is legally and morally problematic,” he said. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan [called](http://www.mfa.gov.tr/turkish-prime-minister-mr%5F-recep-tayyip-erdogan-published-a-message-on-the-events-of-1915.en.mfa "undefined") the Armenian deaths “our shared pain” and offered to establish a joint historical commission to examine the deaths, but fell short of acknowledging the events as a “genocide.” “\[U\]sing the events of 1915 as an excuse for hostility against Turkey and turning this issue into a matter of political conflict is inadmissible,” Erdoğan said in a statement. Pope Francis recently [provoked](http://www.wsj.com/articles/pope-francis-calls-armenian-slaughter-first-genocide-of-20th-century-1428824472 "undefined") the ire of Erdoğan for labeling the 1915 Armenian killings as the “first genocide of the 20th century.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3834015/armenian-genocide-german-president-turkey/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3834015/armenian-genocide-german-president-turkey/"},"headline":"German President Enrages Turkey by Referring to 1915 Armenian 'Genocide'","datePublished":"2015-04-24T05:03:55.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-31T08:22:55.460Z","description":"\"The fate of the Armenians stands as exemplary in the history of mass exterminations, ethnic cleansing, deportations and yes, genocide\"","url":"https://time.com/3834015/armenian-genocide-german-president-turkey/","keywords":["Armenia","Pope Francis topic","Germany","Turkey"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt453dc1f8c1d46111/6987eca23c16396d92455a9d/ap680138763392.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sabrina Toppa","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/sabrina-toppa/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt453dc1f8c1d46111/6987eca23c16396d92455a9d/ap680138763392.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"German President Joachim Gauck delivers a speech at the Berlin Cathedral Church in Berlin, Germany, April 23, 2015","caption":"German President Joachim Gauck delivers a speech at the Berlin Cathedral Church in Berlin, Germany, April 23, 2015","creditText":"Michael Sohn—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/armenia/","name":"Armenia"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3834015/armenian-genocide-german-president-turkey/","name":"German President Enrages Turkey by Referring to 1915 Armenian 'Genocide'"}}]}] ```