A spokesman for the US Department of Defense (Pentagon) John Kirby said that US President Joe Biden's declaration of recognition of the Armenian massacres as genocide will not affect the military relations between the United States and Turkey.

This came in statements made by Kirby during a press conference held at the Pentagon in Washington on Monday, during which he assessed the country's political agenda and responded to various questions of a number of journalists.

In response to a question whether the military partnership with Turkey is expected to decline, after Biden described the events of 1915 as "genocide", which angered Ankara, Kirby said, "We do not expect that the military relations between the United States and Turkey will witness any form of retreat."

He added that Turkey is an important country in the region with a great political weight, in addition to being an important ally of the United States and an effective member of NATO.

He explained that his country is keen to work closely with Ankara on many important files in the international arena, on top of which is the fight against the presence of ISIS and terrorist groups in Syria.

Washington and Ankara are making strenuous efforts to repair relations that have been shattered in recent years due to a number of issues, including Turkey's purchase of the Russian S-400 missile defense system, which would have imposed US sanctions on Ankara in addition to differences over their respective policies in Syria and legal disputes.

'Wrong step'

Earlier in the day, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on his US counterpart, Joe Biden, to immediately reverse his declaration that what Armenians were subjected to during the Ottoman Empire in 1915 was a genocide, a step he said would affect and weaken bilateral relations.

In his first comments since the White House statement on Saturday, Erdogan said a "wrong move" would hamper relations, and advised the United States to "look in the mirror."

Erdogan considered that US President Joe Biden had yielded to the pressures of Armenian extremist and anti-Turkish groups (Anadolu Agency)

Erdogan said that his US counterpart, Joe Biden, had bowed to the pressures of Armenian extremist groups and hostile to Turkey, by describing the events of 1915 as the Armenian genocide.

He added in a speech to him that "Biden used the words of our pain which are not right and baseless, and contradict the facts about painful events that occurred more than a century ago."

Erdogan stressed that there is no evidence to confirm the Armenian allegations, and there is no decision issued by an international court in this regard.

He pointed out that the issue is being used for political motives, and that nothing described the human tragedy in 1915 happened, and what happened was the Ottoman government closed organizations that cooperated against it with hostile countries during the war.

He explained that his country called on researchers to form a committee to look into the Ottoman archives.

But no one responded, stressing that the task of investigating historical events and uncovering facts should be left to historians, not politicians.

But the Turkish president added that he expects a "new door to open" in relations, and that all agreements will be discussed with President Biden at the NATO summit in June.

Recognition of the Armenian Genocide

And the US President, Joe Biden, said last Saturday that the year 1915 witnessed a "genocide" of Armenians during the Ottoman era, stressing that mentioning these events is not aimed at directing the blame, and Armenia welcomed the statement.

"Americans honor all Armenians who died in the genocide (that took place) 106 years ago," Biden said in a statement.

He added, "We mentioned what the Armenians were subjected to. Its aim is to ensure that what happened will not be repeated, and not to be blamed."

Turkey admits that many Armenian Christians who lived in the Ottoman Empire were killed in clashes with the Ottoman forces during the First World War, but it does not accept the numbers, and it also denies that the killing was systematically coordinated or constituted genocide.