US President Joe Biden on Friday made a call to the Turkish president, Erdogan just a day before he is expected to make the landmark recognition of the Armenian genocide.
Saturday (Today) would mark the 106th anniversary of the waning Ottoman Empire’s mass killings of hundreds of thousands of Armenians, whose descendants have been making frantic efforts to ensure that the world recognizes the massacres as genocide.
Before now, Turkey has adamantly rejected the label of genocide and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke by telephone Friday with Biden, who took office in January vowing a new focus on human rights.
The White House did not mention the controversy in a readout of the call, saying only that Biden urged a ‘constructive bilateral relationship with expanded areas of cooperation and effective management of disagreements.’
In a potential sign that the two leaders want to avoid a long-term deterioration of relations, the White House said that Biden and Erdogan would meet each other during the NATO summit in Brussels in June.
Asked Friday if Biden would make a statement, State Department deputy spokesperson Jalina Porter told reporters Friday: ‘When it comes to the Armenian genocide, you can expect an announcement tomorrow.’
A State Department official later clarified that her use of the term ‘Armenian genocide‘ did not signify a shift had already been made by the United States, and that any changes would come from the White House.
Biden, who during his decades as a senator forged close relations with the Armenian-American and Greek-American communities, promised during his presidential campaign to recognize the Armenian genocide.
Speaking in a statement on April 24, 2020, as a presidential candidate, Biden said: “We must never forget or remain silent about this horrific and systematic campaign of extermination.”
‘If we do not fully acknowledge, commemorate, and teach our children about genocide, the words ‘never again’ lose their meaning.’
Turkey insists that the killings and expulsions of ethnic Armenians in what was then the Ottoman Empire were not genocide but a result of the wider conflict in World War I.
Turkish pressure has not stopped some major countries, like France and Germany, from declaring the episode to have been genocide, but many states have held back from fully official recognition.
US recognition would be a massive victory for campaigners. Despite decades of lobbying by the Armenian-American community, successive US presidents have skirted the controversy out of worry about a rupture with NATO ally Turkey.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu warned this week that Biden’s move would sour bilateral relations.
‘If the United States wants to worsen ties, the decision is theirs,’ he fired.
Aram Hamparian, executive director of the Armenian National Committee of America, said that Biden would be ‘effectively ending the longest-lasting foreign gag-rule in American history.’
AFRICA DAILY NEWS, NEW YORK
