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thanked President Joe Biden on Saturday for the 1915 killings and deportations of Armenians in Ottoman-era Turkey as a .

"I'm so proud of my , proud of the Armenian communities and grateful to President Biden for granting every this day, this truth," said Kardashian, who is Armenian-American.

"Thank you President Biden, for your courage to speak the truth others chose not to," she said in a statement shared on Twitter.

The Ottoman-era massacres of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians are widely regarded as a genocide in the United States, where a large Armenian diaspora community has long lobbied Washington to use that term.

Kardashian herself has campaigned on the issue.

In Turkey, however, terming the killings and deportations as a genocide is strongly controversial. 

Ankara claims 300,000 Armenians were killed, a fate it says was shared by Turks and other ethnic minorities during World War I. Turkish officials also point to some Armenians' collaboration with Russian forces as the cause behind killings and deportations.

Turkey summoned the American ambassador to Ankara on Saturday to express its opposition to the Biden administration's declaration.

Kardashian's sister Khloe also thanked President Biden for "honouring the stories, the pain, suffering and loss of the Armenian people".

Armenian-American singer Cher, born Cherilyn Sarkisian, also welcomed the decision.

"Despite being a painful reminder of crimes against humanity, people around the world can finally know that the memories of their ancestors will not be forgotten thanks to this formal recognition by the United States," Cher told TODAY in a statement.

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