Austrian lawmakers on Wednesday condemned as "genocide" for the first time the slaughter of Armenians by Ottoman Turks during World War I, ahead of the massacre's 100th anniversary.

"April 24, 1915 marks the beginning of the persecutions, which ended in genocide," said parliament president Doris Bures, before inviting MPs to stand and observe a minute's silence for the victims.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi stressed on Wednesday that the Lebanese rivals are united concerning the necessity to safeguard the country's coexistence and diversity, considering that the Christian martyrs increased the power of the Church and helped in spreading the religion.

“Lebanon is passing through a delicate situation... and despite the rift, the Lebanese are united regarding the importance of protecting coexistence, diversity and the country's openness,” al-Rahi said from Armenia, where he traveled to attend the centenary commemoration of the Armenian genocide.

She was only a few months old when Ottoman forces came to take away her Armenian father, but a century on Shamiram Sevak can still imagine her dad hugging her tightly to say goodbye.

Turkey and the United States voiced hopes Tuesday that 2015 could be the year when a long-elusive diplomatic solution is finally found to the decades-old division of Cyprus.

"This is a problem that just has gone on for far too long, and it is begging for international efforts to try to help bring about a resolution, a lasting settlement," U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said as he met with his Turkish counterpart.

Turkey's coastguard rescued 30 Syrians from a boat heading towards Greece after their vessel began to take on water in the Aegean Sea, state media said Tuesday.

The rescue operation came amid a surge in the numbers of migrants seeking to reach Europe, following the Mediterranean's worst migrant disaster in which as many as 800 people drowned off Libya.

Turkish police arrested a British family in the capital Ankara after being tipped off that they would try to cross the Syrian border to join Islamic State militants, a Turkish official said Tuesday.

"We received the intelligence from British police on April 19 that a British couple with four children may cross into Syria to join ISIS," the official told Agence France Presse on condition of anonymity, using an alternative name for the terrorist group.

Turkey shares the pain of Armenians whose parents or grandparents were killed under the Ottoman Empire during World War I, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Monday.

"We once again respectfully remember and share the pain of grandchildren and children of Ottoman Armenians who lost their lives during deportation in 1915," Davutoglu said in a statement released by his office to mark the 100th anniversary of the tragedy.

More than 180 people were rescued early Monday from a ferry which ran aground off a Turkish island in a storm, after an overnight ordeal lasting 14 hours, state media and officials said.

The passenger ferry was traveling to the island of Gokceada near the mouth of the Dardanelles Strait in the Aegean Sea when it ran aground Sunday afternoon because of strong winds.

The descendants of Martiros Muradyan cherish like religious relics the few objects he was able to carry with him when he fled the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman forces a century ago. 

The hand-made rugs and wooden spoons in their home in rural Armenia are the last physical reminders they possess of a life that was long ago torn apart. 

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said Monday that he will use a trip to Turkey for Anzac Day commemorations to push Ankara for increased security on its border with Syria and Iraq.

The border is one of the preferred routes for foreign fighters seeking to join Islamic State (IS) jihadists, with Western powers criticising Turkey for not doing enough to seal it off.