The Foreign Ministry on Wednesday harshly criticized the president of the United Nations General Assembly's visit to Armenia, accusing Abdullah Shahid of being used as a "tool for Armenia's biased theses."

In a written statement, the ministry said Shahid paid a visit to the memorial of the so-called genocide in Armenia and stressed that a person in such a position should have "acted responsibly."

The ministry said the U.N. official should have been "more careful" and acted responsibly as his role as head of the U.N. General Assembly requires fairness and impartiality.

Those representing the U.N. authorized bodies "are required to act in accordance with the U.N. acquis and international legal norms and rules, in particular the 1948 U.N. Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide," the statement added.

Ankara further condemned and rejected "attempts to falsify historical facts and international law through political manipulation."

"Turkey believes that the facts regarding the 1915 events should be handled in a full, fair, and honest framework," it added.

Turkey's position on the events of 1915 is that the deaths of Armenians in eastern Anatolia took place when some sided with invading Russians and revolted against Ottoman forces. The subsequent relocation of Armenians resulted in numerous casualties.

Ankara objects to the presentation of these incidents as "genocide," describing them as a tragedy in which both sides suffered casualties.

The country has repeatedly proposed the creation of a joint commission composed of historians from Turkey and Armenia and international experts to tackle the issue.

In 2014,then-Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan expressed his condolences to the descendants of Armenians who lost their lives in the events of 1915.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Turkey was one of the first countries to recognize Armenia's independence on Sept. 21, 1991.

However, following the 1993 occupation by Armenian forces of the Karabakh region, internationally recognized as Azerbaijani territory, the border between the two countries was closed. Another contentious issue between the countries is the events of 1915 in the Ottoman Empire.

The visit to the so-called genocide memorial comes as Turkey and Armenia are trying to mend ties after years of tensions.

Turkey and Armenia restored diplomatic contacts last December after they were suspended for years.

In January, special envoys from Ankara and Yerevan began talks to fully restore ties "without preconditions."

The first round of normalization talks was held in Moscow on Jan. 14, where both parties agreed to continue negotiations without any preconditions, according to a statement released after the meeting.