The United States Tuesday called for a "full, frank" acknowledgement of the facts surrounding the mass killing of Armenians in World War I, but shied away from calling it "a genocide."

Turkey has drawn a defiant red line in refusing to recognize the mass killings of Armenians in World War I as "genocide" on the 100th anniversary year of the tragedy.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday expressed anger over the pope's use of the word genocide to describe the mass killings of Armenians in World War I, saying such talk was nonsense and the pontiff should not repeat such a mistake again.

Ankara at the weekend summoned the Vatican nuncio and recalled the Turkish envoy to the Holy See in a furious reaction to Pope Francis' description of the killings of Armenians at the hands of Ottoman forces.

Turkey on Tuesday launched construction of its first nuclear power plant which Ankara hopes will open a new era of greater energy self-sufficiency, but the ceremony was marred by angry protests against the controversial $20 billion project.

After the launch ceremony, dozens of environmental protesters converged on the iron gates of the site in Akkuyu in Mersin province on the shores of the Mediterranean.

Turkey on Tuesday deported nine Britons, including the son of a local councilor, two weeks after arresting them for attempting to cross into Syria to join jihadists, the official news agency said.

The nine were taken by minibus from custody cells in the Hatay region of south Turkey on the Syrian border to the city of of Adana where they were put on a flight to the Mediterranean city of Antalya, the Anatolia news agency said.

Servicemen taken hostage by the al-Qaida-affiliate al-Nusra Front are expected to be released within 10 days after negotiations with the group reached a breakthrough, al-Mustaqbal newspaper reported on Tuesday.

“Negotiations passed a long way and reached an advanced level,” a concerned source told the daily.

Rejecting worldwide pressure, Turkey has drawn a defiant red line in refusing to recognize the mass killings of Armenians in World War I as genocide on the 100th anniversary year of the tragedy.

Turkey’s tough approach on the issue was shown Sunday by Ankara's incendiary reaction to the use by Pope Francis of the word "genocide" to describe the killings, summoning the Vatican nuncio and recalling the Turkish envoy to the Holy See.

The case of the servicemen held hostage by extremist groups in Arsal's outskirts will go through a “decisive week,” media reports said on Monday, amid the presence in Turkey of General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim, Lebanon's top negotiator.

“Positive developments prompted Ibrahim to head to Turkey where he has spent a day and a night, during which he held talks with Turkish and Qatari officials on the case of the abductees,” al-Manar television reported.

U.S. reality TV star Kim Kardashian and her rapper husband Kanye West were in Jerusalem's Old City Monday for the baptism of their daughter at the Armenian Cathedral, church officials said. 

The couple flew in from Armenia, landing at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion airport before driving straight to the Holy City for the ceremony. 

A Turkish court on Monday acquitted a Dutch journalist tried on charges of spreading "terrorist propaganda" for the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a judicial source said.

Frederike Geerdink, who is based in the Kurdish-majority southeastern city of Diyarbakir, had been briefly detained in January after authorities raided her home, prompting concerns in Turkey and abroad.

Dozens of suspects, including former top company managers, went on trial Monday over modern Turkey's worst mining disaster that left 301 miners dead in the western town of Soma and exposed major safety shortcomings in the industry.

Of the forty-five people standing trial, eight are former top managers from the Soma Komur group that ran the mine who are charged with murder and face sentences of 25 years in prison for each of the 301 fatalities last year.