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Joe Biden PHOTO: Reuters
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US President Joe Biden told his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan today that he intended to recognize the massacre of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire in 1915 as genocide, sources familiar with the telephone conversation between the two said, world agencies reported.
Recognition of the genocide will deal a potential additional blow to the already strained relations between the United States and Turkey, which are allies in NATO.
The long-awaited telephone conversation between the two leaders took place more than three months after Biden took office on January 20th, a delay that is now seen as a demonstration of deliberate hostility to Erdogan, who enjoyed close ties to former US President Donald Trump. .
The conversation between Biden and Erdogan took place the day before Armenian Remembrance Day, when Biden was expected to deviate from decades-carefully White House statements describing World War I events as “Metz Yegern” (“Great Evil”). reminded BTA.
But neither the White House statement nor the Turkish presidency mentioned the issue.
A White House statement said the two leaders had agreed to meet on the sidelines of a NATO summit in June to discuss bilateral relations in more detail.
A statement from the Ankara presidency said the two leaders agreed on the strategic nature of bilateral relations and the importance of working together to build better co-operation on issues of mutual interest.
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