Biden recognizes Armenian genocide a century later

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A torchlight procession in remembrance of the Armenian genocide Saturday in Yerevan, Armenia Associated Press/ Photo by Grigor Yepremyan/ PAN

Biden recognizes Armenian genocide a century later

This year’s Armenian Remembrance Day marked the 106th anniversary of the start of the Ottoman Empire pogrom that killed an estimated 1.5 million Christians. U.S. presidents have avoided calling the atrocities “genocide” out of fear of alienating Turkey, a NATO ally. President Joe Biden officially recognized the genocide on Saturday.

Is Turkey mad? Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu immediately rejected the declaration, saying, “We will not be given lessons on our history from anyone. Political opportunism is the biggest betrayal of peace and justice.” The White House said Biden has spoken with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan about finding ways to settle disagreements between the two countries, and the two also agreed to meet at the NATO summit in Brussels in June.

Dig deeper: Read Harvest Prude’s report in The Stew on Congress’ 2019 recognition of the Armenian genocide.

Lynde Langdon

Lynde is WORLD’s executive editor for news. She is a graduate of World Journalism Institute, the Missouri School of Journalism, and the University of Missouri–St. Louis. Lynde resides with her family in Wichita, Kan.

@lmlangdon