Putin to Meet With Armenian, French Presidents During Friday Yerevan Visit

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — On April 24, Armenia will host events in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the 1915 Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire. Russian and French Presidents are among world leaders Armenia invited to take part in the memorials.

The Kremlin press service said that Putin and Sargsyan would discuss "issues on the bilateral agenda, interactions in integration unions, as well as regional and international topics."

With his French counterpart Putin is expected to exchange information on the fulfilment of the Minsk agreements on the Ukrainian crisis. In mid-February both leaders, as well as Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, took part in the Normandy format Ukrainian reconciliation talks in Minsk that resulted in the elaboration of the agreements.

Earlier this week, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Putin and Hollande may also discuss two overdue delivery of two previously-ordered French Mistral helicopter carriers to Russia.

According to Armenian estimates, about 1.5 million Armenians in the Ottoman Empire were killed during or after World War I. Both Russia and France are among the countries that recognize the killings of Armenians as genocide. Turkey, the Ottoman Empire successor state, refuses to use the word genocide to refer to the massacre, stating that Turkish nationals were also among victims.