American reality television star Kim Kardashian has arrived in the capital of her ancestral home for a visit expected to draw attention to the centennial of the massacre of 1.5 million Armenians.

Armenia formally marks the killings by Ottoman Turks on April 24. It calls the killings genocide, a view widely supported by scholars, but Turkey vehemently rejects the term, maintaining that the figure is inflated and that many people on both sides died.

Kardashian, travelling with her husband Kanye West, their daughter North and sister Khloe, is expected to visit the vast complex in the capital Yerevan that commemorates the victims.

Her ancestors emigrated to the United States in the late 19th century.