President Biden expected to officially recognize the Armenian Genocide on anniversary

After more than a century since nearly 1.5 million Armenians were killed by the Ottoman Empire, President Joe Biden is expected to declare the incident as an act of genocide, the New York Times reported.

Biden is expected to have the United States officially acknowledge the Armenian Genocide on Saturday — on the 106th anniversary of when Christian Armenians were killed by Muslim Ottoman Turks around the time of World War I.

Turkey has long denied that the deaths constituted genocide, instead saying the death tolls was inflated and those killed were victims of civil war and unrest.

And past U.S presidents had declined to officially acknowledge a genocide of Armenians due to the potential backlash from Turkey and the possibility of military conflicts or even diplomatic efforts in the Middle East being jeopardized.

Biden, nonetheless, has decided to issue the declaration, according to the Times.

Ara Aivazian, Armenia’s foreign minister, said in an interview Wednesday that “the recognition by the United States will be a kind of moral beacon to many countries.”

“This is not about Armenia and Turkey,” Aivazian added. “This is about our obligation to recognize and condemn the past, present and future genocide.”

At least 29 other countries already acknowledged the Armenia Genocide did occur, mostly in Europe but, also Russia and Syria, which are two political adversaries of Turkey.

Biden has had his own rocky relationship with Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the past, the Times reported.

In turn, Turkish officials have been bracing for the Armenian Genocide declaration since Biden started running for president.

Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu warned this week that the genocide declaration would set back the already strained relationship between the two NATO allies, the Times reported.

“If the United States wants to worsen ties, the decision is theirs,” Cavusoglu said in an interview with Turkish broadcaster Haberturk.

Biden’s declaration of the Armenian Genocide would not carry any tangible penalties, experts said, beyond humiliating Turkey and tainting its history with comparisons to the Holocaust.

The legal definition of genocide was not accepted until 1946.

According to History.com, Ottoman military leaders argued Armenians were traitors as the Turks entered World War I in 1914 and sided with Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Ottomans believed Armenians thought they could gain independence if the Allies were victorious.

And as the war intensified, Armenians organized volunteer batallions to help the Russian army fight the Turks in the Caucasus region.

These events, and general Turkish suspicion of Armenian people, led the Turkish government to push for the “removal” of Armenians from the war zone.

Nearly a year later on April 24, 1915, the Armenia Genocide began.

This story was originally published April 21, 2021 at 6:11 PM.