Hundreds of people protested in front of the Turkish Embassy in Washington, D.C., on April 24 – the anniversary of the start of the Armenian Genocide in 1915 -- to denounce Turkey’s denial of the genocide, which killed an estimated 1.5 million people, most of them Christians, CNS News reports.

The Armenian Genocide has been officially recognized by 30 countries and by most historians and scholars. In 1981, President Ronald Reagan compared the Armenian Genocide to the Holocaust and the genocide in Communist Cambodia.

“The Turkish government has not only denied the Armenian Genocide [and] obstructed justice in the longest, largest criminal cover-up in world history, but on top of that, they’ve exported it to the U.S.,” said Aram Hamparian, the executive director of the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) at the protest.

“They’ve used bullying to enforce a gag-rule here in Washington, D.C. such that the U.S. policy is not even a U.S. policy -- it’s a Turkish policy,” said Hamparian.

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 commemorated 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.