24th of April 2021, U.S. President Joe Biden has recognized the Armenian mass killing in World War I as genocide on Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day, leading to a strained relationship between Turkey and the United States.
In his speech on Saturday, Biden stated “Each year on this day, we remember the lives of all those who died in the Ottoman-era Armenian genocide and recommit ourselves to preventing such an atrocity from ever again occurring.“
The recognition comes 106 years after the beginning of the mass deportation of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire. Forced deportations and massacres between 1915-1918, led to the deaths of up to 1.5 million people. The killing was carried out as the Ottoman empire was collapsing, and Turkey’s modern state was being established.
/ Arshag Souvajian, (center) John Savagian s grandfather, was forced to flee his home and eventually settled in the United States to escape the Armenian genocide.
Starting on April 24, 1915 it’s estimated that up to one and a half million Armenians were killed or deported by the Ottoman Empire in what is now Turkey. Last month on Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day, President Biden became the first U.S. President to officially recognize this as genocide. U.S. presidents have avoided using that language for decades because of worries about upsetting the relationship between the U.S. and Turkey, who still does not officially recognize the genocide.
Acknowledging the Armenian Genocide gives many in N.J. and elsewhere a chance to end the lie | Opinion
Updated May 05, 2021;
Posted May 05, 2021
President Biden’s acknowledgement of the Armenian Genocide gives Turkish Americans here in the New York/New Jersey area, particularly in Paterson, and elsewhere, of course, an opportunity to lead the discussion, now, by acknowledging history and ending the negative representations of Armenians in its narratives, says Linda Stamato, the director emerita of the Center for Negotiation and Conflict Resolution at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University.
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By Linda Stamato
(Jacana 2013) and Darwin’s Hunch (Jacana 2016). She is a Research Associate at WiSER (Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research).
US President Joe Biden made a statement on 24 April that officially recognised the Armenian Genocide. Between 1915 and 1917, over a million Armenians were killed by Ottoman Turks and another million were forced into exile.
“Of those who survived,” Biden said, “most were forced to find new homes and new lives around the world, including in the United States. With strength and resilience, the Armenian people survived and rebuilt their community.”
Biden’s statement on the 106th anniversary of the start of the genocide had great meaning for me personally. I grew up in Watertown, Massachusetts, which is a major centre of the Armenian diaspora in the United States. Watertown is home to the Armenian Library and Museum of America, as well as Armenian churches, grocery stores and bakeries and several Armenian newspapers.