Biden Poised to Recognize Massacres of Armenians as Genocide - WSJ

President Biden is poised to formally declare that the massacres of Armenians in the early 20th century constituted genocide, U.S. officials said, a rare step that would further inflame ties with Turkey.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Biden is expected to describe as genocide the deportation, starvation and massacres of Armenians at the hands of the Ottoman Turks beginning in 1915, the officials said.

The language would come as part of an annual statement coinciding with a day of remembrance on Saturday. Officials added no final decisions or briefings have taken place and that Biden could opt to issue the symbolic statement without describing the killings as genocide, as have other presidents.

Mr. Biden’s presidential campaign said the month before the November election that he would “recognize the Armenian genocide and make universal human rights a top priority for his administration so that such a tragedy can never again occur.”

White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Wednesday the administration will have more to say Saturday on the issue, but said she wouldn’t provide details at this point in time.

In recent years, ties between the U.S. and Turkey, a fellow member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, have deteriorated over Ankara’s acquisition of the Russian S-400 air-defense system, as well as over human and civil rights issues under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and over Turkey’s role in several regional conflicts.

Former President Donald Trump called the actions of 1915 “one of the worst mass atrocities of the 20th century,” in a statement on Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day. A Trump White House spokeswoman, Kayleigh McEnany, once mentioned an “Armenian genocide memorial” during a press briefing.