Reuters: Beden to recognise massacre of Armenians from Turkey as genocide

Recognizing the massacre as genocide is a largely symbolic act that implies abandoning a very calibrated stance that the White House has held for decades. This step is undertaken, while Ankara and Washington have had recent clashes on a number of topics. President Biden will likely use the word <x0focid” in a statement that could be published Friday, April 24, when Armenian victims around the world are remembered, three sources with knowledge of this plan said.

As far as I understand, he has made that decision and will use the word "genocide" in his statement Saturday,” said a source on the issue. White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in comments to reporters that the White House would likely make comments on this topic on Saturday, refusing to speak further.

Massacres

A year ago, during the presidential campaign, Mr. Biden paid tribute to 1.5 million Armenians, among them men, women, and children killed in the last years of the Ottoman Empire, saying he would back efforts to recognise these massacres as genocide. Turkey acknowledges that many Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire were killed in combat with Turkish forces during World War I, but it provides far lower figures and rejects interpretations that the killings were part of a campaign orchestrated as genocide.

For decades, attempts to recognise these killings as genocide have stalled in Congress and successive American presidents have been reluctant to use the term "genocide" for concern over the damage to relations with Turkey and under pressure from the Turkish lobby.