Jakarta, CNN Indonesia –
United States President Joe Biden on Saturday (24/4) confessed killing people Armenia by Ottoman forces in 1915 as genocide, a defining moment for the descendants of the hundreds of thousands of people who died at that time.
Biden became the first US president to use the word genocide in a statement at the commemoration, a day after informing Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan of the decision and seeking to limit the furore from the NATO ally.
“We remember the lives of all those who died in the Ottoman-era Armenian genocide and recommit to preventing such atrocities from happening again,” Biden said, as quoted by AFP.
“We affirm history. We are doing this not to blame but to ensure that what happened is never repeated.”
The statement was a major victory for Armenia and its extensive diaspora. Starting with Uruguay in 1965, countries including France, Germany, Canada and Russia have recognized the genocide, but US statements have become the most important goal that has proved elusive under the previous president.
Erdogan, in a statement to the Armenian community in Istanbul, said the debate “must be held by historians” and not “politicized by a third party.”
“Words cannot change or rewrite history,” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu wrote in a tweet moments after Biden’s statement. “We’re not going to take lessons from anyone about our history.”
The Turkish foreign ministry later summoned US Ambassador David Satterfield to express his displeasure, noting that Biden’s decision caused “irreparable wounds in the relationship,” the state news agency Anadolu reported.
Explaining Biden’s thinking, a government official pointed to a Democratic presidential oath to place a new priority on human rights and highlighted his openness to systemic racism in the United States.
Around the world, “people are starting to acknowledge and discuss and grapple with painful historical facts in their own countries. This is definitely something we are doing here in the United States,” the official said.
Biden Recognizes the Massacre of Armenia in 1915 Genocide
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