Biden to Publicly Recognize Armenian Genocide, Ending Decades of US Silence
People hold pictures of victims during a memorial to commemorate the 1915 Armenian mass killings on April 24, 2018, in Istanbul, Turkey.
Chris McGrath / Getty Images
U.S. President Joe Biden is set to crack many decades of U.S. government silence on Saturday by publicly and officially recognizing that the systematic killing of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottomans during the First World War was as historians, survivors, and their descendants have long known a “genocide.”
In a phone call on Friday, Biden reportedly told Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that the announcement by the U.S. government which the Turkish government has long, and successfully thus far, campaigned against would come in an official declaration on Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day, commemorated each year on April 24.
By Laura Kelly - 04/24/21 12:34 PM EDT
President Biden s decision to recognize the Armenian genocide is being welcomed by the community and its supporters as a long-overdue step in standing up for human rights, though the move carries with it risks to the U.S. relationship with Turkey.
Biden s announcement follows through on a campaign promise to use the Oval Office to formally acknowledge the systematic deportation and killing in the early 20th century of almost 2 million Armenians and other minorities at the hands of the Ottoman Empire, which is present-day Turkey.
The recognition marks a significant break from previous presidents and administrations, which held off declaring the atrocities committed against Armenians as genocide over concerns that such a move would fracture relations between Washington and Ankara.
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WASHINGTON, April 24, 2021 /PRNewswire/ President Joseph Biden officially recognized the Armenian Genocide, today, rejecting the longest-lasting foreign gag-rule in American history and dealing a major setback to Turkey s century-long obstruction of justice for this crime, a move welcomed by the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).
In joining with the U.S. Senate and House, 49 U.S. states, and a dozen NATO allies, President Biden has ended a century-long era of American complicity in Turkey s denials.
President Biden s recognition of the Armenian Genocide effectively ended the longest-lasting foreign gag-rule in American history. President Biden s principled stand on the Armenian Genocide today – powerfully overriding Ankara s foreign veto against honest American remembrance of this crime - pivots America toward the justice deserved and the security required for the future of the Armenian nation – a landlocked, blockaded, g
By Humeyra Pamuk
WASHINGTON, April 24 (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden said on Saturday that the 1915 massacres of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire constituted genocide, a historic declaration that infuriated Turkey and further strained frayed ties between the two NATO allies.
The largely symbolic move, breaking away from decades of carefully calibrated language from the White House, was welcomed by the Armenian diaspora in the United States, but comes at a time when Ankara and Washington grapple with deep policy disagreements over a host of issues.
Turkey s government and most of the opposition showed rare unity in their rejection of Biden s statement. Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Turkey entirely rejects the U.S. decision which he said was based solely on populism , while the opposition denounced it as a major mistake .