Biden Administration to recognise the Armenian genocide

US President Joe Biden will recognise the Armenian genocide in the coming weeks, according to the US-based GZERO media. If confirmed, Biden would become the first US president to admit the extermination of the Armenian people under the Ottoman Empire.

A bipartisan coalition of 38 senators last week urged Joe Biden to acknowledge the Armenian genocide at the hands of the Ottoman Empire. Upon confirmation, the Democrat would execute two goals on his agenda. Firstly, he would admit the Senate's request; secondly, he would fulfil one of his campaign promises.

Led by Bob Menendez, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee - a post held by Biden himself since 1997 - the coalition submitted in a letter to the Administration that the Ottoman Empire "systematically sought to eliminate the Armenian population". The letter continued to echo previous statements by the president, who acknowledged that "American diplomacy and foreign policy must be rooted in our values, including respect for universal rights".

In this vein, and in reference to Biden's words during his presidential campaign, the bipartisan coalition added that those values "require that we acknowledge the truth and do what we can to prevent future genocides and other crimes against humanity". "If we do not recognise, commemorate and teach our children about genocide, the words 'never again' will lose their meaning," the brief included.

The Ottoman government, then led by the nationalist Young Turks party, committed heinous crimes against the Armenian civilian population at the end of World War I and until 1923. During this period, it is estimated that up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed at the hands of the Ottoman authorities. Some records even count more than 2 million. 

The Republic of Turkey, the direct successor to the Ottoman Empire, has not denied the atrocious persecution of Armenian Christians. Nor has it acknowledged that it was a mass extermination organised by the authorities, claiming that it was not an 'Armenian holocaust', but inter-ethnic strife caused by the deep crisis in which the Empire was plunged after its defeat in the Great War, which ended with its dissolution in 1922. 

States that, in addition to Armenia itself, have previously recognised the category of genocide include Canada, France, Italy and Russia, among others. There are regions that have also joined in classifying the massacre of the Armenian people as such, such as the Basque Country and Catalonia in Spain, or Ontario and Quebec in Canada. Even Pope Francis did not hesitate to describe the mass killing of Armenian Christians as "genocide" during his visit to Yerevan for the centenary commemoration. 

The United States would be the 20th country to recognise the Armenian genocide. However, even if the US federal government has not yet recognised the genocide, as many as 42 states have done so. Only eight hold Washington's line: Alabama, South Dakota, Indiana, Iowa, Mississippi, Texas, South Dakota, West Virginia and Wyoming. 

The 2017 American Community Survey estimate counted a total of 485,970 US citizens with full or partial Armenian ancestry. Other studies give higher estimates, ranging from 800,000 to 1.5 million. The United States is the second largest destination for the Armenian diaspora, behind only Russia.

The Armenian population is concentrated in California, the home state of Vice President Kamala Harris, where she served first as a prosecutor and then as a senator. California is home to some 205,000 Armenians, followed at a considerable distance by Massachusetts and New York, with 30,000 and 25,000 people of Armenian origin respectively. 

Before Biden, former President Barack Obama had the option of recognising the genocide during his term in office, but chose not to do so. The decision provoked strong disagreement within his administration, although he later justified his refusal as indispensable for a stable diplomatic relationship with Turkey and the maintenance of peace negotiations between Turkey and Armenia.

The Senate, despite Trump's objections, unanimously passed a resolution officially recognising the Armenian genocide together with the House of Representatives at the end of 2019. Up to three previous attempts were blocked by Republican senators, who argued the inappropriateness of the recognition. However, the Senate resolution expressed only "the sense of the Senate" and not the administration's position.

As a presidential candidate, Biden tweeted on 24 April last year: 'If elected, I pledge to support a resolution that recognises the Armenian Genocide and will make universal HR a top priority'. A year later and with Biden in the Oval Office, recognition seems close at hand. If it does happen, it would be another burden on Turkish President Recep Tayipp Erdogan's backpack. 

The last few months, especially since the arrival of the pandemic, have been a political storm in Ankara that has resulted in a severe economic, political and social crisis. The Turkish lira plunged to historic lows, leading to the dismissal of the new Central Bank governor, the third Central Bank governor to be sacked in less than two years. 

Meanwhile, the president's political popularity is falling by leaps and bounds. The government's latest decision to withdraw Turkey from the Istanbul Convention, the European treaty against male violence that the Turkish government itself signed a decade ago, has provoked strong protests in several parts of the country. To alleviate discontent, Erdogan has resorted to harassment of the HDP, the pro-Kurdish opposition party, which he has branded undemocratic and accused of being "in collusion with the PKK terrorist group".

US State Department spokesman Ned Price said that banning the HDP would "unduly subvert the will of Turkish voters, further undermining democracy in Turkey and denying millions of Turkish citizens the representation they have chosen".