US President Joe Biden again used the term "
genocide
" on Sunday to describe the death of one and a half million Armenians massacred by the Ottoman Empire in 1915, a year after an initial recognition that had provoked the anger of Turkey.
To discover
LIVE - War in Ukraine: Antony Blinken expected in kyiv this Sunday, two months after the start of the war
Read also“
Armenian Genocide: From Yesterday to Today
”
"
Today we remember the one and a half million Armenians who were deported, massacred, or marched to their deaths in a campaign of extermination, and we mourn the tragic loss of so many lives.
" , Joe Biden said in a statement Sunday marking Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day.
“
On April 24, 1915, the Ottoman authorities arrested Armenian intellectuals and leaders in Constantinople.
Thus began the Armenian Genocide - one of the worst mass atrocities of the 20th century
,” the US President also said.
Joe Biden recently used the term genocide The Kremlin finds it “unacceptable” for Biden to accuse Putin of “genocide”, accusing his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin of trying “
simply to erase the very idea of being able to be a Ukrainian
”.
Turkey rejects the term genocide
Armenians estimate that one and a half million of their own were systematically killed during World War I by troops of the Ottoman Empire.
Turkey, resulting from the dismantling of the empire in 1920, recognizes massacres but rejects the term genocide, evoking a civil war in Anatolia, coupled with a famine, in which 300,000 to 500,000 Armenians and as many Turks died .
Biden provoked the ire of Ankara last year by becoming the first sitting US president to describe the massacres as genocide.
He had informed Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of his intentions the day before the announcement, in order to limit the anger of this NATO ally.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan then claimed that this recognition was "
baseless
" and "
destructive
", and warned that Washington could lose a friendly state in this key region.
Read alsoJoe Biden recognizes the Armenian genocide
Relations between the two countries then gradually relaxed during the year, with the Turkish president even hailing a “
new era
” between Ankara and Washington in June during a meeting between the two leaders.
Joe Biden and Recep Tayyip Erdogan also spoke last month about Turkish mediation in the war in Ukraine.
