Biden Admits to Exterminating Armenians in the Ottoman Empire

US President Joe Biden announced on Saturday the recognition of the massacres committed during the Ottoman era against more than one million Armenians.

Biden called the massacre of 1,5 million Armenians during World War I by the Ottoman Empire “genocide”.

Biden’s announcement marks the 106-year anniversary of the mass killings that began in 1915, when the Ottoman Empire was fighting Czarist Russia during World War I in what is now Armenia.

The White House said in a statement : “We remember the lives of all those who died in the Armenian genocide of the Ottoman era and renew our commitment to prevent such atrocities from happening again.” 

He added : “As of 24 April 1915, with the arrests of Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in Constantinople by the Ottoman authorities, 1.5 million Armenians have been deported, slaughtered or even brought to death in a campaign of annihilation.”

He continued : “We honor the victims today so that history is not lost and remembered so that we are always vigilant against hatred in all its forms.”

President Joe Biden had a phone conversation, Friday, with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

According to an informed source, Biden told Erdoğan during the call that he would recognize the 1915 Armenian Genocide on Saturday.

The White House made no mention of the contentious issue, saying only that Biden had urged “a constructive bilateral relationship with expanded areas of cooperation and effective dispute management.”

A number of former US presidents have avoided declaring such recognition, citing concerns about rising tensions with NATO ally Turkey.