Biden’s Recognition of the Armenian Genocide Ended the US' Denial of It

 Jennifer M. Dixon

On April 24th last year, President Biden officially recognized the Armenian Genocide. Last year’s announcement constituted an important reversal of decades of US complicity in Turkey’s denial of the Genocide. In the wake of Biden’s statement, commentators highlighted its importance in terms of what it said about the state (read: nadir) of US-Turkish relations and about Biden’s commitment to a moral foreign policy. While such analyses captured central factors behind this long-resisted official acknowledgment, its most important function was to end the US’ own denial of the Armenian Genocide. 

The Most Righteous Thing Joe Biden Has Done as President

John Nichols

I have waited my entire life for an American president to speak a full measure of truth about the Armenian genocide.

On Saturday, Joe Biden did.

I’ve had my differences with Biden in the past, and I will surely have them in the future. But I will always remember that he put America on the right side of history when, on this year’s Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day, he used the word that his predecessors had eschewed.

El genocidio armenio

Este año, las conmemoraciones del 106° aniversario del genocidio armenio (1915-1923) están irremediablemente marcadas por el contexto del reciente enfrentamiento entre el tándem Azerbaiyán-Turquía y la república de Nagorno Karabaj (Artsaj). El peligro de esta catástrofe humanitaria venía siendo advertido como corolario de una imparable carrera armamentista sumada a la campaña de armenofobia protagonizada por el gobierno de Azerbaiyán. Ejemplo de esta avanzada son también las constantes amenazas contra los armenios proferidas por el presidente turco Erdogan, amparado en la indiferencia de unos y las complicidades de otros.

An Explanation of Recent Developments Regarding US Recognition of the Genocide

 Paul Vartan Sookiasian

With just a month left until April 24, the 106^th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, the Armenian-American community once again awaits a new president to see if he will keep his promise on recognition of this historical fact. While President Ronald Reagan did use the term in a remembrance message, the federal government continued to appease Turkey for decades to come through refusing to use the word, keeping it an outstanding issue. As scholarly research has made the truth of the genocide even harder to deny, tactics by Turkish lobbyists evolved from outright denialism to more nuanced technicalities or just plain threats as to why the president and Congress should not use the ‘g-word’. As candidates, both George W. Bush and Barack Obama pledged to recognize the genocide, yet both broke their pledges, with Bush strongly urging Congress to reject a genocide recognition bill in 2007, while Obama referred to the event by other names.