Armenian genocide: 10,000 people gathered in Yerevan, Biden calls Erdogan
Several thousand Armenians took part in a torchlight procession in Yerevan on April 23, 2021, to celebrate the 106th anniversary of the genocide of their people.
AFP - KAREN MINASYAN
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5 mins
The American president met Friday, April 23 with his Turkish counterpart on the eve of the expected recognition of the Armenian genocide, in accordance with his campaign promise.
At the same time, in Armenia, tens of thousands of people commemorated the genocide in Yerevan.
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Nearly 10,000 people marched in Yerevan on Friday to commemorate the massacres of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire during World War I.
The crowd, carrying torches, marched from the city center to the memorial dedicated to the victims and overlooking the Armenian capital.
Some demonstrators chanted patriotic songs, others drummed, noted an AFP journalist.
Activists from the nationalist and opposition Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF), who led the procession, also burned Turkish and Azerbaijani flags.
This march, organized every year on the eve of April 24, the day the massacres began in 1915, is the first since the defeat of Armenia this autumn in the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh, against Azerbaijan supported by the Turkey.
A campaign promise
It also comes as Joe Biden could soon recognize the massacres of Armenians as genocide.
Was the subject discussed during the US President's appeal to Erdogan this Friday?
Probably.
Knowing Ankara's irascibility on this subject, Joe Biden preferred to call the Turkish president to tell him that he intended to fulfill his campaign promise, according to Reuters sources.
A spokesperson for the US State Department referred to an
expected
"
announcement
" on Saturday on the "
Armenian genocide
", leaving little doubt about the US decision.
For its part, after the telephone exchange, the Turkish presidency confined itself to a statement, devoid of any mention of the imminent announcement of Joe Biden: “
The two leaders agreed on the strategic nature of the bilateral relationship and the 'importance of working together to build closer cooperation on matters of mutual interest
, ”the Turkish Presidency said in an account of this conversation.
Despite years of pressure from the Armenian community in the United States, no American president has so far dared to anger Ankara, Washington's historic ally and member of NATO. The US Congress recognized the Armenian Genocide in December 2019 in a symbolic vote, but Donald Trump refused to use the word. The Armenian genocide is recognized by more than twenty countries and many historians but it is vigorously contested by Turkey.
Joe Biden had promised, before his election, to take the initiative on this issue.
"
We must never forget or remain silent on this horrible and systematic campaign of extermination
", stressed Joe Biden during his campaign.
"
If we do not fully recognize the genocide, if we do not commemorate it, if we do not teach it, the words 'never again' mean nothing,
" he added.
No legal scope
Armenians estimate that a million and a half of theirs were systematically killed during World War I by troops from the Ottoman Empire, then allied with Germany and Austria-Hungary. They commemorate this genocide every year on April 24. Turkey, resulting from the dismantling of the empire in 1920, recognizes massacres but rejects the term genocide, evoking a civil war in Anatolia, coupled with a famine, in which 300,000 to 500,000 Armenians and as many Turks have found the death.
Mr Biden's announcement will not have legal effect, but it can only worsen tensions with a Turkey that the head of the American diplomacy Antony Blinken described as "
so-called strategic partner
" which "
by de many aspects do not behave like an ally
”.
Without citing the United States, the Turkish president had sent a thinly veiled warning to Washington on Thursday.
During a meeting with advisers, he indicated that he would continue to "
defend the truth against those who support the lie of the so-called" Armenian genocide "(...) for political ends
".
Joe Biden and Recep Tayyip Erdogan have agreed to meet in June on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Brussels.
(With AFP)
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United States
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