April 24, 2021 Share
President Joe Biden on Saturday plans to follow through on a campaign pledge to formally recognize that atrocities committed against the Armenian people by the Ottoman Empire more than a century ago in modern-day Turkey were genocide, according to U.S. officials familiar with the president’s deliberations.
Biden spoke to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday in anticipation of his plan, in a presidential proclamation to mark Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day, to use the term genocide to describe the killings and deportations of hundreds of thousands of Armenians. U.S. presidents for decades have acknowledged Remembrance Day to mark the events of 1915 to 1923 but have avoided using the term “genocide” to sidestep alienating Turkey.
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In this April 15, 2021, file photo, US President Joe Biden speaks about Russia in the East Room of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) President Joe Biden formally recognized that the systematic killings and deportations of hundreds of thousands of Armenians by Ottoman Empire forces in the early 20th century were “genocide” using a term for the atrocities that his White House predecessors have avoided for decades over concerns of alienating Turkey.
With the acknowledgment, Biden followed through on a campaign promise he made a year ago Saturday the annual commemoration of Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day to recognize that the events of 1915 to 1923 were a deliberate effort to wipe out Armenians.
Updated April 24, 2021 at 3:00 PM ET
President Biden on Saturday declared the mass slaughter of Armenians at the hands of Ottoman Turks more than a century ago a genocide, bucking pressure from Turkey s government as well as decades of precedent to describe the atrocity as one that was ethnically motivated. 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, Biden said in a statement. Let us renew our shared resolve to prevent future atrocities from occurring anywhere in the world, the president said. And let us pursue healing and reconciliation for all the people of the world.
United States President Joe Biden has formally recognised the mass killing of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire during World War I as a “genocide”, a move that was immediately rejected by Turkey.
In a statement on Saturday, Biden became the first US president to formally recognise the killings of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, which began in 1915, as an act of “genocide”.
“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,” reads the statement, released on Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day.
US president Joe Biden has formally recognised the systematic killings and deportations of hundreds of thousands of Armenians by Ottoman Empire forces in the early 20th century as “genocide”.
Mr Biden used a term for the atrocities that his White House predecessors have avoided for decades amid concerns over alienating Turkey.
With the acknowledgement, the American leader followed through on a campaign promise he made a year ago on the annual commemoration of Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day to recognise that the events of 1915 to 1923 were a deliberate effort to wipe out Armenians.
Joe Biden (AP)
Mr Biden used a presidential proclamation to make the pronouncement.