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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said U.S. President Donald Trump had asked him whether it would be more suitable to use the word war instead of calling the mass deportation of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire in 1915 a genocide, political scientist Suren Sargsyan wrote on his Facebook page, citing Turkish media reports.

“He in fact used such an expression, ‘Will it be suitable if we call it a war instead of a genocide,’ he said,” Erdogan told reporters, referring to Trump. Erdogan next said that he had rejected the suggestion on the grounds that two states should counter each other to call something a war and that Armenians had in fact been subject to forced migration.

Sargsyan reminded that Erdogan and Trump will meet in Washington next week to discuss the ongoing situation in Syria as well as other issues that have been causing tensions between the two allies, including potential U.S. sanctions and the resolution approved by the U.S. House of Representatives last week recognizing the Armenian Genocide.