International Turkey is Angry that the Massacre of 1,500,000 Armenians is Finally Being Recognized a "Genocide"

[Arkain2K]

Joe Biden set to formally recognize Armenian genocide, officials say
The anticipated move could further complicate an already tense relation ship with Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the Turkish leader

Joe Biden is expected to formally recognize the massacre of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire during the first world war as an act of genocide, according to US officials.

The anticipated move – something Biden had pledged to do as a candidate – could further complicate an already tense relationship with the Turkish leader, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Administration officials had not informed Turkey as of Wednesday, and Biden could still change his mind, according to one official who spoke to the Associated Press.

Lawmakers and Armenian-American activists are lobbying Biden to make the announcement on or before Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day, which will be marked on Saturday.

One possibility is that Biden would include the acknowledgement of genocide in the annual remembrance day proclamation typically issued by presidents. Biden’s predecessors have avoided using “genocide” in the proclamation commemorating the dark moment in history.

Turkey accepts that many Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire were killed in clashes with Ottoman forces during the first world war, but contests the figures and denies the killings were systematically orchestrated and constitute a genocide.

A bipartisan group of more than 100 House members on Wednesday signed a letter to Biden calling on him to become the first US president to formally recognize the atrocities as genocide.

“The shameful silence of the United States government on the historic fact of the Armenian genocide has gone on for too long, and it must end,” the lawmakers wrote. “We urge you to follow through on your commitments, and speak the truth.”

Turkey’s foreign minister has warned the Biden administration that recognition would “harm” US-Turkey ties.

The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal first reported that Biden is preparing to acknowledge the genocide.

Should Biden follow through, he’ll almost certainly face pushback from Turkey, which has successfully pressed previous presidents to sidestep the issue.

The relationship between Biden and Erdoğan is off to a chilly start. More than three months into his presidency, Biden has yet to speak with him.

Biden drew ire from Turkish officials during his presidential campaign last year, after an interview with the New York Times in which he spoke about supporting Turkey’s opposition against “autocrat” Erdoğan. Still, Turkey was hopeful of resetting the relationship. Erdoğan enjoyed a warm relationship with former Donald Trump, who didn’t give him any lectures about Turkey’s human rights record.

“In the past, the arm-twisting from Turkey was, ‘Well we’re such a good friend that you should remain solid with us on this’,” said Aram Hamparian, the executive director of the Armenian National Committee of America, whose members have started a campaign to encourage Biden to recognize the genocide. “But they’re proving to be not such a good friend.”

Hamparian said he is hopeful Biden will follow through. He noted that the sting of Barack Obama not following through on his 2008 campaign pledge to recognize the Armenian genocide still lingers for many in the Armenian diaspora.

https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2021/apr/21/armenian-genocide-joe-biden-turkey

 

[Lonesome Crow]

Joe Biden set to formally recognize Armenian genocide, officials say
The anticipated move could further complicate an already tense relation ship with Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the Turkish leader

Joe Biden is expected to formally recognize the massacre of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire during the first world war as an act of genocide, according to US officials.

The anticipated move – something Biden had pledged to do as a candidate – could further complicate an already tense relationship with the Turkish leader, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Administration officials had not informed Turkey as of Wednesday, and Biden could still change his mind, according to one official who spoke to the Associated Press.

Lawmakers and Armenian-American activists are lobbying Biden to make the announcement on or before Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day, which will be marked on Saturday.

One possibility is that Biden would include the acknowledgement of genocide in the annual remembrance day proclamation typically issued by presidents. Biden’s predecessors have avoided using “genocide” in the proclamation commemorating the dark moment in history.

Turkey accepts that many Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire were killed in clashes with Ottoman forces during the first world war, but contests the figures and denies the killings were systematically orchestrated and constitute a genocide.

A bipartisan group of more than 100 House members on Wednesday signed a letter to Biden calling on him to become the first US president to formally recognize the atrocities as genocide.

“The shameful silence of the United States government on the historic fact of the Armenian genocide has gone on for too long, and it must end,” the lawmakers wrote. “We urge you to follow through on your commitments, and speak the truth.”

Turkey’s foreign minister has warned the Biden administration that recognition would “harm” US-Turkey ties.

The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal first reported that Biden is preparing to acknowledge the genocide.

Should Biden follow through, he’ll almost certainly face pushback from Turkey, which has successfully pressed previous presidents to sidestep the issue.

The relationship between Biden and Erdoğan is off to a chilly start. More than three months into his presidency, Biden has yet to speak with him.

Biden drew ire from Turkish officials during his presidential campaign last year, after an interview with the New York Times in which he spoke about supporting Turkey’s opposition against “autocrat” Erdoğan. Still, Turkey was hopeful of resetting the relationship. Erdoğan enjoyed a warm relationship with former Donald Trump, who didn’t give him any lectures about Turkey’s human rights record.

“In the past, the arm-twisting from Turkey was, ‘Well we’re such a good friend that you should remain solid with us on this’,” said Aram Hamparian, the executive director of the Armenian National Committee of America, whose members have started a campaign to encourage Biden to recognize the genocide. “But they’re proving to be not such a good friend.”

Hamparian said he is hopeful Biden will follow through. He noted that the sting of Barack Obama not following through on his 2008 campaign pledge to recognize the Armenian genocide still lingers for many in the Armenian diaspora.

https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2021/apr/21/armenian-genocide-joe-biden-turkey

I'll believe it when I see it.

But that recent Nagorno-Karabakh War did change the calculus for many things in the region. Hell, even Saudi and Iran are talking to each other again.

 

[mmascene]

Good news if true.

 

[Arkain2K]

I'll believe it when I see it.

But that recent Nagorno-Karabakh War did change the calculus for many things in the region. Hell, even Saudi and Iran are talking to each other again.

I'm pretty confident that it will. Turkey burnt way too many bridges since this megathread was created 6 years ago.

 

[Arkain2K]

Why wont they recognise Holodomor as a genocide since they could use it against Russia?

Why won't you make a thread about other topics you want to discuss instead of dragging them into a completely unrelated event?

 

[ShinkanPo]

Why won't you make a thread about other topics you want to discuss instead of dragging them into a completely unrelated event?

Or why cant he just commit internet sepuko

 

[Lonesome Crow]

I'm pretty confident that it will. Turkey burnt way too many bridges since this megathread was created 6 years ago.

Well, he did it. I'm impressed.

Erdogan may be a shitbag, but Turkey controls the Dardanelles, the Bosporus and along with Incirlik that has historically trumped all other considerations.

 

[Arkain2K]

US President Joe Biden recognizes Armenian genocide

​

President Joe Biden formally recognized the Ottoman Empire's killing and deportation of Armenians over a century ago as a genocide, breaking from his predecessors and risking inflaming tensions with Turkey.

Biden had pledged as a presidential candidate to recognize the Armenians' treatment, which took place in modern-day Turkey, as genocide. Armenian-Americans have long called on U.S. presidents to do so, but Turkey, a key NATO ally, has warned the U.S. against it, long maintaining that the violence was part of bloody clashes during World War I.

The Turkish government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said "we reject and denounce in the strongest terms" Biden's designation, adding it "will open a deep wound that undermines our mutual trust and friendship."

Ties between the two allies have been increasingly strained in recent years, although Biden finally spoke to Erdogan Friday -- their first call during Biden's tenure -- and conveyed "his interest in a constructive bilateral relationship with expanded areas of cooperation and effective management of disagreements."

Biden used the word "genocide" in a statement to mark "Armenian Remembrance Day" on Saturday -- 106 years after the events that the Armenian diaspora considers the start of the genocide. Previous presidents had avoided using the label even as they made the traditional, annual proclamation honoring the anniversary.

"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 in the statement. "The American people honor all those Armenians who perished in the genocide that began 106 years ago today," he added.

The statement was expected, especially after then-candidate Biden marked last year's remembrance day by saying, "Silence is complicity."

"If we do not fully acknowledge, commemorate, and teach our children about genocide, the words 'never again' lose their meaning," he wrote, pledging to back a congressional resolution that recognized the Ottoman Empire's actions as genocide. Resolutions to recognize the genocide passed the House and Senate in 2019, but former President Donald Trump, like his predecessors, never joined them.

On Wednesday, over 100 bipartisan members of Congress sent a letter to Biden calling on him to use his proclamation to officially label what happened a "genocide."

The Ottoman Turks deported around 2 million Armenians starting in 1915. Around 1.5 million Armenians are estimated to have been killed.

The Turkish government agrees that fighting during the war killed many, but it has long denied that the treatment of the Christian Armenians by the Muslim Ottomans amounted to genocide and says that the death toll was lower.

Over two-dozen countries have recognized the atrocities as genocide, according to the Armenian National Institute, a Washington-based group that advocates for the genocide designation.

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/bid...killings-armenians-genocide/story?id=77245687

 

[Cherry Brigand]

it was over 100 years ago. Who cares?

 

[Arkain2K]

 

[Orgasmo]

I guess it's a bit of a consolation prize after Armenia got wrecked against Azerbaijan/Turkey a few months back.

 

[hitcher]

Well, he did it. I'm impressed.

Erdogan may be a shitbag, but Turkey controls the Dardanelles, the Bosporus and along with Incirlik that has historically trumped all other considerations.

Maybe its time to return Istanbul to greece by liberating Turkey?

 

[Broke Lester]

it was over 100 years ago. Who cares?

People like me whose relatives have been butchered, we care. All of us.

 

[MicroBrew]

it was over 100 years ago. Who cares?

100ish years is not long ago at all. We talk about the Holocaust all the time, and that was about 25 years after the Armenian Genocide.

And it matters because for a long time the Turks and their friends in the US , like the Israel/Jewish lobby, and NATO interests suppressed the recognition of the genocide. A lot of folks don't know about it, like they do the Holocaust, so this recognition will go towards informing people.

 

[Arkain2K]

 

[Perturabo]

That’s the first that I’ve of Biden making it official. Good for him.

 

[reveler]

deeds matter more than words. let's see biden's admin address israel's recent support for the azeris, then perhaps this is more than just a gesture.

note that @ArmenianAssasin hasn't posted in like 6 months, since the recent conflict.

 

[kenetics]

it was over 100 years ago. Who cares?

Damn you people can be annoying lol

 

[Arkain2K]

it was over 100 years ago. Who cares?

Of all the retardation in the WR, first and foremost are those who apparently care enough about certain serious topics of discussion to make the time and effort to come in to express to everyone else how much they supposedly don't care.

 

[ElKarlo]

Maybe its time to return Istanbul to greece by liberating Turkey?

That would be wonderful. Hagia Sofia is disgraced by those minarets