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by Tiziana Di Giovannandrea
23 April 2021 United States President Joe Biden had a telephone conversation with the President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan to express "his interest in constructive bilateral relations with extended areas of cooperation and effective management of disagreements".
The news of the telephone conversation was released by the White House also reporting that the two leaders decided to have "a bilateral meeting on the margins of the NATO summit in June to discuss a wide range of bilateral and regional issues".
The phone call between the two leaders came after the American press announced that President Biden could, on April 24, announce the recognition of the Armenian genocide: the killing during the First World War of about 1.5 million Armenian civilians from part of the Ottoman Empire.
The president of the United States promised to do so during the election campaign and April 24 is the 106th anniversary of the beginning of the systematic extermination of the Armenian people.
For his part, Erdogan has always affirmed that the massacre of the Armenians, committed during the First World War, cannot be configured as a genocide. "Turkey will continue to defend the truth against the so-called genocide of the Armenians and those who support this defamation", declared the Turkish president.
The expected phone call came more than three months after Biden was inaugurated as the 46th president of the United States on January 20. Erdogan, who has enjoyed good relations with former President Donald Trump, will almost certainly not like a possible announcement by Biden of the recognition of the Armenian genocide.
The report of the White House call made no mention of the problem.