Joe Biden recognises Armenian genocide despite Turkey's opposition
25 April, 2021
US President Joe Biden on Saturday recognised the 1915 killings of thousands of Armenians by Ottoman forces as genocide, a move immediately welcomed by Armenia and rejected by Turkey as a "grave mistake".
Mr Biden became the first US president to use the word genocide in a customary statement on the anniversary, a day after informing Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that he'd go ahead with this task and wanting to limit the expected furore from the Nato ally.
"We remember the lives of most those who died in the Ottoman-era Armenian genocide and recommit ourselves to preventing this atrocity from again occurring," Mr Biden said.
"And we remember in order that we remain ever-vigilant against the corrosive influence of hate in all its forms."
There have been scattered scenes of celebration in the Armenian capital Yerevan as news of the declaration broke on Saturday evening.
Near the downtown Opera Square, there occasional cheers and cars horns honking were heard as persons heard that the united states had finally recognised the genocide 106 years later.
The statement is a massive victory for Armenia and its extensive diaspora.
Starting with Uruguay in 1965, nations including France, Germany, Canada and Russia have recognised the genocide but a US statement is a paramount goal that proved elusive under other presidents until Mr Biden.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan welcomed Mr Biden's statement in a letter posted on his website.
"The persons of Armenia and Armenians across the world perceived with great enthusiasm and welcomed your message," he wrote.
"The acknowledgement of the Armenian Genocide is important not merely as a tribute paid to the 1.5 million innocent victims, but also when it comes to preventing the recurrence of similar crimes against mankind."
Mr Biden's statement coincided with Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day on Saturday.
Turkey's foreign ministry called on Mr Biden to "correct this grave mistake", saying his statement "will open a deep wound that undermines our mutual trust and friendship".
"It really is clear that the said statement does not have a scholarly and legal basis, nor is it supported by any evidence," the ministry said.
Opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) spokesman Faik Oztrak said the united states statement would “decrease in history as an excellent mistake.” He added that it would cause “irreparable wounds” to Turkey-US relations, and was a missed chance to improve ties between Turkey and Armenia.
A senior US official said Mr Biden made the decision "in a very principled way centered on the merits of human rights, and not for just about any reason beyond that, including inserting blame".
Biden statement places incremental pressure on Turkey
Benyamin Poghosyan, chairman of the Centre for Political and Economic Strategic Studies in Yerevan, said Mr Biden's statement was highly significant.
"Turkey is still remote but each time a new country recognises the genocide we come nearer to Turkey recognising it. Of course, US recognition, as the utmost powerful country on the globe, sends a strong signal to other states," he told The National.
Mr Biden took office vowing to place a new give attention to human rights and democracy after his volatile predecessor Donald Trump, who befriended authoritarians and, despite breaking a lot of foreign policy precedents, declined to recognise the Armenian genocide.
Explaining Mr Biden's thinking, the administration official also alluded to the Democratic president's outspokenness on systemic racism in the United States.
Across the world, "people are starting to acknowledge and address and grapple with the painful historical facts within their own countries. It's certainly a thing that we are doing within america," she said.
As much as 1.5 million Armenians are estimated to have already been killed from 1915 to 1917 through the waning days of the Ottoman Empire, which suspected the Christian minority of conspiring with adversary Russia in the First World War.
Armenian populations were rounded up and deported in to the desert of Syria on death marches where many were shot, poisoned or fell victim to disease, according to accounts at that time by foreign diplomats.
Turkey, which emerged as a secular republic from the ashes of the Ottoman Empire, acknowledges that 300,000 Armenians may have died but strongly rejects that it was genocide, saying they perished in strife and famine in which many Turks also died.
Mr Erdogan on Thursday told advisers to "defend the truth against those who back the so-called 'Armenian genocide' lie", with his foreign minister warning that the United States would problem relations.
Recognition is a top priority for Armenia and Armenian-Americans, with demands compensation and property restoration over what they call Meds Yeghern - the fantastic Crime.
Mr Biden's statement was also expected to heighten appeals from Armenia for greater US support against Turkish-backed neighbour Azerbaijan, which this past year humiliated Armenia by firmly taking back swathes of territory seized in the 1990s.
But Mr Biden, whose call to Mr Erdogan to inform him of the genocide recognition was their first conversation because the US leader took office 90 days ago, has signalled he hopes for limited diplomatic impact.
Mr Biden and Mr Erdogan agreed within their call to meet up in June on the sidelines of a Nato summit in Brussels, officials said.
Mr Biden has kept Mr Erdogan at arm's length - a contrast with Mr Trump, whom the Turkish leader reportedly found so amenable that he'd call him directly on his phone on the golf course.
THE UNITED STATES Congress in 2019 voted overwhelmingly to discover the Armenian genocide however the Trump administration clarified that the state US line hadn't changed.
Biden recognition of genocide a departure from Obama regime
Former president Barack Obama, under whom Mr Biden served as vice president, danced around the problem by referencing pre-election statements he made recognising the genocide and resisted pressure for a statement on the centennial in 2015.
Alan Makovsky, a specialist on Turkey at the left-leaning Centre for American Progress, said that the 2019 congressional resolution had "no discernible impact" on US-Turkey relations and paved the way for Mr Biden to go ahead.
"We've seen through experience that concern about Turkey's reaction was always overblown," he said.
"Turkey will raise a rhetorical fuss for a couple days as well as perhaps delay functioning on some routine requests from the united states military."
Tensions have risen with Turkey recently over its purchase of a significant air defence system from Russia - the chief adversary of Nato - which under US law could trigger sanctions.
Turkey has also infuriated much of the US political establishment using its incursions against US-allied Kurdish fighters in Syria who helped fight ISIS but are associated with militants inside Turkey.
Mr Biden before taking office called Mr Erdogan an autocrat and voiced support for Turkey's opposition.
Source: www.thenationalnews.com