US: Biden recognizes Armenian Genocide in White House statement
'Let us pursue healing and reconciliation for all the people of the world,' Biden says
US President Joe Biden recognized the Armenian Genocide in an official statement released by the White House on Saturday.
"Each year on this day, 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," Biden said.
"Beginning on April 24, 1915, with the arrest of Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in Constantinople by Ottoman authorities, one and a half million Armenians were deported, massacred, or marched to their deaths in a campaign of extermination."
Biden hailed the contributions of Armenian immigrants to the US society, saying: "We honor their story. We see that pain. We affirm the history."
He urged for a focus on the future and the legacy set to be left for the generations to come.
'Let us pursue healing and reconciliation for all the people of the world,' he said.
The AFP cited a US official as saying the move was not meant as a jab at Turkey, but it is nevertheless likely to take a toll on Ankara's ties with Washington.
In a phone call with Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, made ahead of issuing the statement, Biden informed him of the intention to recognize the genocide, while also saying he was looking to improve the US relations with Turkey.