Ankara - More than 5,000 Turks have signed up to apologize for the "great catastrophe" during the First World War when hundreds of thousands of Armenians died at the hands of Ottoman Turks.

The petition on the website www. ozurdiliyoruz. com, initiated by Turkish journalists and academics, is headed by the simple phrase "I apologize."

"I cannot accept the denial of the great catastrophe of 1915 that Ottoman Armenians were subjected to. I condemn this injustice and acting on my own behalf I share the feelings of pain of my Armenian brothers," the petition says, followed by the names of the more than 300 people who started the campaign.

The website showed that by Tuesday afternoon, a day after the site was launched, more than 5,300 people had signed up to the petition.

The campaign is in direct contrast to official state policy that refuses to admit that the deaths of up to 1.5 million Armenians in the last days of the Ottoman Empire actually constitute a genocide.

Turkey says that while there were massacres of ethnic Armenians the events were the result of a civil uprising during the war. A group of former Turkish ambassadors have issued a counter statement declaring the petition as against Turkey's national interests.

Neighbouring Turkey and Armenia do not have any diplomatic relations and the land border between the two countries was closed by Turkey in 1993 in protest at the Armenian occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh.

A thawing in relations has begun in recent months with Turkish President Abdullah Gul in September becoming the first Turkish head of state to visit the Armenian capital Yerevan. (dpa)