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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said April 22 that he did not expect the U.S. President Barack Obama to use the word “genocide” in a statement to mark the 100th anniversary of the killing of Armenians at the hands of the Ottoman Empire, the Hurriyet Daily News reports.

“I would not like to hear such a thing from Mr. Obama. And I do not expect such a thing,” Erdoğan said during a joint press meeting with visiting Iraqi President Fuad Masum in Ankara. 

He was responding to a question upon news reports that Obama would avoid such an expression. 

“The place of Turkey in the eyes of the U.S. and its stance in these incidents are obvious,” said Erdoğan. 

He and Obama had discussed the issue repeatedly in the past, the president said, repeating his stance that the Armenian killings should be left to historians. 

The debates on the issue are disturbing Turkey’s 100,000 citizens of Armenian origin, he said, allocating himself the right to speak on their behalf.