Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says the deportation of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire in the early 20th century was “appropriate at the time.”

Erdogan made the comment Wednesday, April 24 at a symposium where he slammed France for marking the Armenian Genocide.

The “deportation of Armenian gangs who were massacring Muslims including women, children and elderly people in the Eastern Anatolia region was the most appropriate act at that time,” Erdogan said. “No group or state has been able to prove their claims on the Armenian issue with archive documents,” Erdogan added, accusing the French of committing genocide in Africa.

April 24, 1915 is the day when a group of Armenian intellectuals was rounded up and assassinated in Constantinople by the Ottoman government. On April 24, Armenians worldwide are commemorating the 104th anniversary of the Genocide which continued until 1923. Some three dozen countries, hundreds of local government bodies and international organizations have so far recognized the killings of 1.5 million Armenians as Genocide. Turkey denies to this day.