Thousands rallied in Armenia’s capital Yerevan on Saturday to commemorate the estimated 1.5m Armenians killed in massacres by Turkish forces during World War One.
Over 10,000 marched from a central square to a sprawling memorial complex and activists burned a Turkish flag.
Armenia and a number of other nations consider the violence genocide, a classification rejected by Turkey.
During his presidential campaign, Joe Biden pledged to formally recognise the killings as genocide, a promise he has vowed to make good on.
Biden spoke to Turkey’s President Erdogan on Friday, ahead of his expected announcement on Saturday.
At the rally in Yerevan, protesters welcomed the expected move.
“The United States is a big country, a strong country. […] If they recognise the genocide it will have a big impact on other countries and maybe even on Turkey and Azerbaijan,” said one woman.
Turkey acknowledges that many people died in the violence but claims the number of victims has been inflated and that the deaths resulted from civil unrest during the collapse of the Ottoman empire.
Saturday is Genocide Remembrance Day in Armenia.
