- Biden is set to formally recognize the Armenian Genocide on Saturday, the NYT reported.
- No US president has officially recognized the killing of 1.5 million Armenians during WWI as genocide.
- Turkey has warned that such a move would harm relations at a time when they’re already strained.
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President Joe Biden is poised to formally recognize the Armenian genocide on Saturday, The New York Times reported per officials familiar with deliberations on the matter, in a historic move that could further roil US-Turkey relations.
Biden would be the first sitting US president to officially recognize the killing of 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Empire during World War I as genocide. That said, former President Ronald Reagan made a reference to the “genocide of the Armenians” in a 1981 statement on the Holocaust. The step Biden is reportedly set to take would be more official and occur in concert with Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day, which occurs every year on April 24.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider.
Turkey has urged Biden against recognizing the killings as genocide at a time when the dynamic between Washington and Ankara is already historically contentious. Speaking on the matter during an interview with the Turkish broadcaster Haberturk on Tuesday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said, “Statements that have no legal binding will have no benefit, but they will harm ties.”
“If the United States wants to worsen ties, the decision is theirs,” Cavusoglu added.
This article will continue to be updated.