US President Joe Biden calls massacre of Armenians during World War I as genocide

US President Joe Biden has called the massacre of Armenians during the World War I as a genocide. He is the first US president to describe the atrocities on Armenians in 1915 as such. The US President’s statement is issued when the Armenians are commemorating the start of the mass killings. 

Mr Biden said, they remember the lives of all those who died in the Ottoman-era Armenian genocide and recommit to preventing such an atrocity from occurring ever again. He said, the intention was not to cast blame but to ensure that what happened is never repeated.

 

However, Turkey has rejected the US decision. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on



twitter that they will not take lessons from anyone on their history. Later the Turkish foreign ministry said it had summoned the US ambassador to convey Ankara's reaction.

 

The killings took place in the waning days of the Ottoman Empire, the forerunner of modern-day Turkey. Ottoman Turks had accused Christian Armenians of treachery after suffering a heavy defeat at the hands of Russian forces and began deporting them en masse to the Syrian desert and elsewhere. Hundreds of thousands of Armenians were massacred or died from starvation or disease.

 

Turkey acknowledges the atrocities but reject the term genocide.