US President Joe Biden marks Armenian ‘Genocide’ in challenge to ally Turkey

President Joe Biden commemorated the 106th anniversary of the mass killing of Armenians by twice calling it a “genocide” — a word no US leader since Ronald Reagan has used to describe the historical event for fear of alienating Nato ally Turkey.

“The American people honour all those Armenians who perished in the genocide that began 106 years ago today,” Biden said in a written statement timed to Saturday’s commemoration of Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day.

“One and a half million Armenians were deported, massacred, or marched to their deaths in a campaign of extermination,” Biden said. “We remember the lives of all those who died in the Ottoman-era Armenian genocide and recommit ourselves to preventing such an atrocity from ever again occurring.”


The move fulfils a campaign promise to Armenian-Americans, but risks pushing Turkey further into Russia’s orbit. Turkey has denied that its predecessors in the Ottoman Empire committed wholesale atrocities, calling the allegations “slander”, and suggesting that Biden’s declaration was more about domestic politics.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu responded quickly on Twitter, saying his country has “nothing to learn from anybody about our own past.” And the ministry issued a statement saying the US had opened “a deep wound that undermines our mutual trust and friendship.”

The US president had made a “grave mistake”, the ministry said, adding that Biden was under the way of “radical Armenian circles and anti-Turkey groups.”

Biden’s statement came a day after his first phone call as president with his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in which he gave advance notice of the statement and used the word “genocide”, according to officials familiar with the call.

Neither side mentioned the contentious issue in their formal statements about the discussion, and instead focused on a planned meeting at the Nato summit in Brussels in June.

Still, the Turkish lira dropped 1% against the dollar on the news Friday, extending the Turkish currency’s week-long slide to 3.9%.