US President Joe Biden is expected to formally recognize the Armenian Genocide by the Ottoman Empire during World War I, and such development is expected to further worsen US relations with Turkey.
White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters yesterday that the US president would have “more to say” on the issue this Saturday. She avoided going into details.
Biden is expected to use the word “genocide” in a statement issued on April 24, when commemorative events are held around the world each year, according to two sources familiar with the matter, who spoke to Reuters, highlighting that no final decision has been made yet.
A year ago, when Biden was still running for president of the United States, he had honored the memory of the 1.5 million victims, men, women, and children slaughtered in the years leading up to the end of the Ottoman Empire, and had promised that if elected he would officially recognize the Armenian genocide.
Turkey acknowledges that many Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire were killed in clashes with Ottoman forces at the time, but disputes historians’ estimates of the number of victims, claiming that it was not a systematic, orchestrated extermination of its population that would constitute genocide.
The possible recognition of the Armenian genocide was reported earlier on Wednesday by The Wall Street Journal, citing Biden government officials.
Yesterday, Tuesday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Tsavousoglou warned that the official recognition of the genocide by the United States would damage the already tense relations between the two countries, allies in NATO.
Source: ANA-MPA