Armenians in US gather on Genocide Remembrance Day

Members of California's Armenian community gathered on Saturday to commemorate the anniversary of the massacre of their ancestors by Ottoman Empire forces in the early 1900s.

Hundreds of people streamed to a hilltop monument in Montebello, about 10 miles (16 kilometers) east of downtown Los Angeles, to mark Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day.

Dressed in black, many laid flowers around a tomb while priest led prayers for the estimated 1.5 million Armenians who were killed in the events beginning in 1915 known Metz Yeghern.

Also Saturday, President Joe Biden formally declared the systematic killing and deportation of hundreds of thousands of Armenians as a genocide, saying the recognition by a sitting US president was long overdue.