The President of the United States, Joe Biden, has officially recognized the Armenian genocide. In a solemn declaration, the Democratic President admitted on Saturday April 24 that the massacres and deportations committed from 1915, during the First World War, by the Ottomans against the Armenian populations amounted to genocide. “Every year on this day, we remember the lives of all those who died in the Armenian genocide of the Ottoman era and we again pledge to prevent such an atrocity from happening again.”, the president said in a statement released at noon US time (6 p.m. in Paris). “We’re not doing this to blame but to make sure what happened never happens again. “
“Let us renew our common resolve to prevent future atrocities from happening all over the world. And let’s 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 166 years ago today. “
The American presidents had always avoided this formal recognition so as not to irritate their ally in NATO. Ronald Reagan had referred on April 22, 1981 to the “Genocide of the Armenians”, which claimed more than 1.5 million lives, but it was an incise in a declaration commemorating the Nazi death camps. Barack Obama had recognized this in campaign statements, but had not done so as president during the celebration of the centenary of the massacres in 2015. About thirty countries, including France, Germany and Russia, acknowledged the genocide, according to the Armenian National Institute in Washington.
The President of the Turkish Republic, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, reacted on Saturday by accusing “Third party” to interfere in the affairs of his country. “Nobody takes advantage of the fact that the debates – which should be held by historians – are politicized by third parties and become an instrument of interference in our country”, he said in a message to the Armenian Patriarch in Istanbul.
According to the American press, Mr. Biden warned Mr. Erdogan on Friday of his upcoming move. The subject does not appear in the transcript of the meeting between the two men, the first since Mr Biden took office in January.
Eradicate the tension with Turkey in advance
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