In a historic move, setting him apart from the route followed by previous US Presidents, Joe Biden has issued a statement formally calling the 1915 massacre of Armenians a genocide.
The announcement (scroll down for the full statement), made on Saturday 24 April, the day marking the 106th anniversary of the mass killings in the Ottoman era, was not a surprise following a Reuters report earlier in the week making public the recognition was expected to happen, according to sources.
Greek American White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki had also told reporters on Wednesday that the administration would likely have “more to say” about the issue on Saturday, as it happened.
The largely symbolic move that breaks away from decades of meticulously calibrated language from US administrations on the issue, has triggered a stern response by Turkey.
In a statement, Turkey’s ministry said that the White House announcement lacked any legal basis and that Ankara “rejected it, found it unacceptable and condemned in the strongest terms”, adding that it had caused a “wound in ties that will be hard to repair”.
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Statement by President Joe Biden on Armenian Remembrance Day
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. Beginning on April 24, 1915, with the arrest of Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in Constantinople by Ottoman authorities, one and a half million Armenians were deported, massacred, or marched to their deaths in a campaign of extermination. We honor the victims of the Meds Yeghern so that the horrors of what happened are never lost to history. And we remember so that we remain ever-vigilant against the corrosive influence of hate in all its forms.
Of those who survived, 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. Over the decades Armenian immigrants have enriched the United States in countless ways, but they have never forgotten the tragic history that brought so many of their ancestors to our shores. We honor their story. We see that pain. We affirm the history. We do this not to cast blame but to ensure that what happened is never repeated.
Today, as we mourn what was lost, let us also turn our eyes to the future—toward the world that we wish to build for our children. A world unstained by the daily evils of bigotry and intolerance, where human rights are respected, and where all people are able to pursue their lives in dignity and security. Let us renew our shared resolve to prevent future atrocities from occurring anywhere in the world. And let us pursue healing and reconciliation for all the people of the world.
The American people honor all those Armenians who perished in the genocide that began 106 years ago today.