Armenians prepare to commemorate a hundred years since 1.5 million of their kin were massacred by Ottoman forces, as a fierce dispute still rages with Turkey over Ankara's refusal to recognize the mass murder as genocide.

Hundreds of thousands are expected to flock to the towering genocide memorial in Armenia's capital Yerevan on Friday for an emotional ceremony to mark the centenary of the start of a tragedy that still stirs deep divisions.

Edward Papikian, a high school student at the Rose and Alex Pilibos Armenian School in Los Angeles, says he thinks every day about his forefathers who were slain by Ottoman forces in 1915.

He says he and his classmates -- who are preparing for the 100th anniversary of what Armenians say was a systematic campaign of ethnic slaughter -- had been taught about it since childhood, "so that another genocide doesn't happen."

French President Francois Hollande will discuss the Ukraine crisis with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin during a visit to Armenia on April 24, a source in his office said Friday.

Putin and Hollande are attending a ceremony in Yerevan marking the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Friday angrily condemned the European Parliament for adopting a resolution urging Turkey to recognize the mass killings of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire as genocide, saying it was a sign of growing "racism" in Europe.

Speaking to reporters in Ankara, Davutoglu said such statement ignored the suffering of Muslim Turks in World War I and risked inciting hatred towards other non-Christian religious groups.

Yasmin Rostomyan makes no big outward show of her origins but works daily to keep her Armenian heritage alive and preserve it for the future in modern Turkey.

"Turkey is my country, I do not want to leave," she says. "And I don't want my children to be obliged to leave. If they can stay here, that would make me happy."

Mass killings? Mutual bloodletting? Genocide? The hundreds of thousands of dead have been silent for a century, but generations on, Armenians are still battling to get the World War I slaying of their ancestors recognized as a genocide.

As Armenians around the world gear up to mark 100 years since the start of the slaughter on April 24, the struggle to get the world -- and above all Turkey -- to use the term "genocide" remains deeply divisive.  

Armenian forces on Thursday killed an Azerbaijani soldier in the latest breach of a ceasefire between the arch-foes locked in a simmering conflict over the disputed Nagorny Karabakh region, officials in Baku said.

"Armenian forces have yet again violated the ceasefire and killed an Azerbaijan army warrant officer," Azerbaijan's defence ministry said in a statement without giving further details.

The United States Tuesday called for a "full, frank" acknowledgement of the facts surrounding the mass killing of Armenians in World War I, but shied away from calling it "a genocide."

Turkey has drawn a defiant red line in refusing to recognize the mass killings of Armenians in World War I as "genocide" on the 100th anniversary year of the tragedy.

Rejecting worldwide pressure, Turkey has drawn a defiant red line in refusing to recognize the mass killings of Armenians in World War I as genocide on the 100th anniversary year of the tragedy.

Turkey’s tough approach on the issue was shown Sunday by Ankara's incendiary reaction to the use by Pope Francis of the word "genocide" to describe the killings, summoning the Vatican nuncio and recalling the Turkish envoy to the Holy See.

U.S. reality TV star Kim Kardashian and her rapper husband Kanye West were in Jerusalem's Old City Monday for the baptism of their daughter at the Armenian Cathedral, church officials said. 

The couple flew in from Armenia, landing at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion airport before driving straight to the Holy City for the ceremony.