Time.news – The one who killed one and a half million Armenians during the terrible exodus wanted by the Ottoman authorities in 1915 was a “genocide”: the expected recognition by the United States takes place 106 years after the tragedy but still manages to ignite the spirits and the reactions from Turkey. Joe Biden issued his statement on the 106th anniversary of the beginning of the exodus and the massacre of the Armenian community from Constantinople, present-day Istanbul.
Its counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, with whom the White House tenant had spoken yesterday on the phone, immediately reacted by denouncing the “politicization” of the issue “by third parties”, in a message addressed to the Armenian Patriarch in Istanbul. Turkey, on the other hand, stressed Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, “has nothing to learn from anyone about its history”. The Armenian Prime Minister, Nikol Pachinian, instead welcomed a “very strong fit towards justice and historical truth. “Now the Armenian genocide is recognized from beyond twenty countries and numerous historians, but remains contested by Turkey.
“The American people honors all the Armenians who died in the genocide that began exactly 106 years ago, “said the president of the United States. “We affirm the story. We don’t do it to blame anyone, but to make sure that what happened then never happens again“, reads another passage of the historic declaration.” We honor the victims of Meds Yeghern so that the horrors of what happened are not forgotten – it continues – We remember in order to always remain vigilant against the corrosive influence of hatred in all its forms “.
During yesterday’s conversation, the two presidents agreed to meet in Brussels in June, on the sidelines of the summit of the Atlantic Alliance. Biden wished to build “a constructive bilateral relationship” through “effective management of disagreements”.
In the direction of softening the effect of recognition goes the phrase “not to blame anyone“, addressed directly to Ankara. But the Turkish reaction does not seem to have accepted this attempt.
The issue is delicate, and Turkey keeps the point that the Armenian dead of 1915 fell along with many others from all the fighting camps, during a civil war whose deadly effects were amplified by famine, calling for the creation of an international historical commission to define the facts.
Despite strong pressure from the powerful Armenian community in the US, no American president has so far dared to risk compromising relations with the powerful NATO ally. Trump in particular, despite the Congressional vote in 2019, did not never used the word genocide, calling that of 1915 “one of the worst mass atrocities of the twentieth century”.
.