Biden describes, again, Armenian massacres as 'genocide'
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Biden's definition of genocides is a fuzzy one - the word seems to have an interchangeable use depending on Washington's interests.
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US President Joe Biden
US President Joe Biden capitalized on the commemoration of the Armenian remembrance day to describe the past atrocities of the Ottoman Empire as "genocide" as a repetition of controversial words from a year ago after equivocation.
Such remarks aggravate Turkey. Ankara refuses to recognize the 1915-16 mass killing of a million Armenians as "genocide".
In addition to that, earlier this month, Biden said Russia's "atrocities" that have been committed since February 24 amount to "genocide" - the term was used to describe the massacring of the Armenians during WWI.
"On April 24, 1915, Ottoman authorities arrested Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in Constantinople. Thus began the Armenian genocide -- one of the worst mass atrocities of the 20th century," the President said in a statement.
"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 mourn the tragic loss of so many lives."
Biden's definition of genocides is a fuzzy one - the word seems to have an interchangeable use depending on Washington's interests.
Read more: Biden "genocide" comment concerning to some US officials - NBC
Earlier today, the Armenian President, Nikol Pashinyan, said that international recognition of the Armenian genocide would ease tensions in the region, rather than exacerbating them, and would help avert such crimes in the future.
Around 1.5 million Armenians were killed between 1915 and 1917 as the Ottoman Empire began to collapse.
According to accounts and testimonies, Armenians were rounded up and exiled to the Syrian desert on death marches, where they were lined up to get shot or poisoned.
Turkey acknowledges that 300,000 Armenians may have died but strongly denies that it was a "genocide".
Biden, last year, was the first US President to recognize the Armenian "genocide".
