Peace and Democracy party, the only Kurdish party of the Turkish parliament, issued a statement demanding that Ankara must apologize to Armenians for the Genocide and set up a parliamentary committee to study the 1915 events.

“The wounds of genocide are still fresh in Turkish society, for the simple reason that Turkey has not honestly looked at the history of the biggest genocide of the 20th century. Our country has not cleared the conscience of society. Turkey has not put up with its own history and apologized for the Armenian Genocide,” the party said in a statement.

The fact of the Armenian Genocide, the first genocide of the 20th century, is recognized by many states. It was first recognized in 1965 by Uruguay. In general, the Armenian Genocide in Ottoman Turkey has already been recognized by 21 countries and 43 out of 50 U.S. states.

Turkey denies accusations of mass killings of Armenians during the First World War and is extremely sensitive to criticism voiced by the western states.