The United States President Joe Biden will “recognize” the Armenian genocide caused by the Ottoman government during World War I, US media reported Tuesday.
“As I’ve heard from the White House, that President Biden is going to recognize the 1915 killing of Armenians under the Ottomans’ rule as a genocide,” American political scientist Ian Bremer said on GZERO Media.
This step would make Biden the first US president to recognize the genocide of Armenians under Ottoman rule.
Bremer said that “Biden promised during his campaign that he would make the move if elected,” pointing out that Vice President Kamala Harris was co-sponsor of the Senate decision to recognize the genocide of Armenians in 2019.
The genocide has been recorded by historians as the systematic killing and deportation of Armenians by the Turks of the Ottoman Empire during World War I. By the early 1920s, when the massacres and deportations finally ended, between 600,000 and 1.5 million Armenians were reportedly dead.
Earlier this week a bipartisan coalition of nearly 40 lawmakers led by Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez urged Biden to officially recognize the genocide.
In their letter they said: “the administration is committed to promoting respect for human rights and ensuring such atrocities are not repeated… A critical part of that is acknowledging history.”
During his presidential campaign, Biden commemorated Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day last year.
“It is particularly important to speak these words and commemorate this history at a moment when we are reminded daily of the power of truth, and of our shared responsibility to stand against hate — because silence is complicity,” he said.
“If we do not fully acknowledge, commemorate, and teach our children about genocide, the words ‘never again’ lose their meaning,” he said.