Mr. Bozkir then sought to provide an explanation for where Argentines might have gotten the idea that the 1.5 million Armenians killed between 1915 and 1923 in the last days of the Ottoman Empire had been slaughtered intentionally.

“In Argentina,” Mr. Bozkir asserted, “the Armenian diaspora controls the media and business.” The minister provided no evidence for his assertion and was not asked for any. (One prominent member of the Armenian diaspora in Argentina, Eduardo Eurnekian, is a billionaire who did once have significant media holdings, but he sold them two decades ago, according to Forbes.)

Argentina, which is home of the largest community of Armenians in South America, more than 100,000, angered the Turks in 2006 by adopting legislation that formally recognized April 24 as a day “in commemoration of the Armenian Genocide.”

Turkey’s government has acknowledged that atrocities were committed during the period but fiercely opposes the characterization that the killing of Armenians was systematic and intentional.