Joe Biden to declare that he considers the massacre of Armenians genocide – US President

Correspondence from New York

Biden is expected to make the announcement on Saturday, April 24, the Day of Remembrance for the victims who died at the hands of the Ottoman Turks between 1915 and 1923, according to US media speculation.

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Most historians, as well as about 30 countries that adopted the relevant decisions (including Poland – in 2005) believe that 1.5 million Armenians and members of other minorities died as a result of the genocide.

But past US presidents avoided the term “genocide” in order not to contradict Ankara, which maintains that Armenians, among others, were victims of hostilities. Donald Trump described the events of 1915 as “one of the worst mass atrocities in the world”. Twentieth century. Barack Obama spoke in his contacts with Americans of Armenian descent about genocide, but deleted that word on Memorial Day.

Turkey has the second largest army in NATO and has a major importance in the Middle East, which has been important in American politics for years.

It is not known if Biden will make an announcement on Saturday. The president’s accompanying delegation says it can only make a last-minute statement to commemorate the Armenian Genocide without describing it as genocide.

However, this week 100 lawmakers from both parties sent a letter to President Biden urging him to fulfill his election promise. The US government’s shameful silence on the Armenian Genocide has already been crossed and must end. Lawmakers wrote that we are pleading with the president to tell the truth.

A year ago, as a candidate, Biden declared that if elected to the highest office, he would support a resolution that recognized the Armenian Genocide. Biden said: “Universal human rights will be a priority for my administration so that such tragedies do not happen again.”

Relations between Washington and Ankara have deteriorated in recent years, after Turkey bought the Russian-made S-400 missile defense system, for which the United States imposed sanctions on Turkey, and accusations of human rights violations in Syria by anti-Assad forces there with the support of Turkey.

In 2019, the US Congress approved a resolution officially recognizing the massacre of Armenians as genocide. Joe Biden has not spoken to Recep Erdogan since taking office, but the Turkish leader is expected to be one of 40 participants in the Biden climate summit on Thursday and Friday.

According to analysts, if Biden formally used the term “genocide,” Ankara could retaliate the way European settlers treated Native Americans, trigger a diplomatic protest, make it difficult to import goods from the United States, or prevent Americans from using Turkish Incirlik. . An air base near the border with Syria.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Tuesday, “Any steps Biden takes to consider the Armenian genocide as a genocide will lead to the deterioration of relations that have already been damaged with our country and among NATO members.”