Reports say that President Joe Biden will call Turkey's murder of 1.5 million Armenian Christians as a "genocide."
President Biden will answer calls to declare Turkey's crime as genocide even though it will "risk the wrath" of the said country's dictator and "automatically trigger a series of actions" such as "restricting travel for some government officials," PJ Media reported. This in exchange to the "undying thanks of the Armenian people."
Calls for the United States to declare the actions of Turkey against the Armenian Christians as "genocide" has been going on for the last 100 years ever since World War II but "geopolitics and the NATO alliance" prevented this from happening, PJ Media noted.
Most American presidents did show desire to declare the matter as such but "Turkey was just too vital an ally to upset" being the "second-largest armed forces in NATO" and for having the Bosphorus Strait, which is the "most strategic waterways in the world," PJ Media said.
According to Arab News, Turkey is "on tenterhooks" for Biden's declaration and recognition on Armenian genocide through the Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day on April 24.
"Acknowledgment of 1915-1923 mass killing of Christian Armenians by Ottoman Turks would be the first by a U.S. president. Decision would be a setback for Turkish President Erdogan at a time of continuing friction in U.S.-Turkey relations," Arab News said.
Arab News also reported that in 2019 the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives has adopted the measure of the Armenian genocide after U.S. political relations became strained after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan intervened in northern Syria. There were 38 senators at that time that wrote to Trump to declare the matter as genocide.
Arab News explained that the Ottoman Empire ordered the arrest of Armenian intellectuals in 1915 that escalated to the rape, murder, pillage, and deportation of the said ethnic group in 1923. Armenians were then sent on death marches to the Mesopotamian desert away from their homes, deprived of food and water. Ottoman death squads were recorded to have massacred 2 million Armenians by 1914 although Turkey's official records only sow 300,000.
In similar news, NBC Los Angeles reported that Biden actually promised to declare Turkey's murder as genocide during his campaign period for the presidency. NBC said Biden has not informed Turkey's government about the matter and could retract his intentions to do so any time. Biden's plans to do so was revealed by an unnamed U.S. official who asked to be kept in anonymity since the matter is still being deliberated internally.
NBC Los Angeles added that Biden is being pressured by Armenian-American activists and American lawmakers to make the announcement by Saturday in time for the Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day. NBC said that it is probable Biden would make the announcement on that day. NBC cited a tweet of California Representative Adam Schiff calling on Biden to make the announcement.
"An open letter to @POTUS: This week, the world will mark the 106th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. This is the first April 24 of your presidency, your first chance to keep your promise to hundreds of thousands of Armenian Americans: Recognize the Armenian Genocide," Schiff said on Wednesday.
Yet despite world calls on Turkey's murderous actions against the Christian Armenians, Turkey's government justified the matter when it released last month a 290-page document that said they acted "within the boundaries of legitimacy."
