On the 24th of April, US President Joe Biden said “we remember the lives of all those who died in the Ottoman-era Armenian genocide“. It was an important moment, on the 106th anniversary of the atrocity, for Joe Biden to become the first American President to formally recognise the genocide.
In 1915, Armenians who lived in the Ottoman Empire were arrested and rounded up and were led on “death marches” into the desert to concentration camps, where they suffered and died from the exhaustion of dehydration. The death toll reached over one and a half million in a terrible event that has scarred and affected Armenians ever since, many of whom had to flee and seek refuge in other countries.
While the likes of the United States, France and Germany have recognised the Armenian genocide, key American allies such as the United Kingdom and Israel have not done so yet, highlighting Biden’s more proactive politics. This seems to be an effort on Biden’s part that is focused on peace-making, an alternative to his predecessor who was more willing to stoke divisions rather than settle them.
Alongside recognising the Armenian genocide, recently Biden has also been outspoken about the outcome of the Derek Chauvin murder case of George Floyd, as well as giving public support for the LGBTQ community, and especially trans kids in America, in his 100-day speech to both congressional houses.
The Turkish government has not been pleased by Biden’s recognition of the event. Successors to the Ottoman Empire, Turkey continues to adamantly deny the truth of the genocide. In a call between the two state leaders, Biden reportedly told President Erdogan that he was planning to recognise what the Ottomans did in 1915, a day before he released a press conference officially announcing it.
Turkey does recognise that the deaths happened, but vehemently denies any systematic orchestration by the state of the event, and that it was not a genocide. Furthermore, following the declaration, Erdogan has denounced the recognition, calling it “groundless and unfair”, and suggesting that it will only damage ties between the two NATO allies. Erdogan also pointed to the hypocrisy of the statement, mentioning the treatment of Native Americans by European settlers, which does take the shine off the virtue of the recognition.
The recent Turkey-Armenia relationship is further muddied by the 2020 renewal of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, an area of Armenia that was populated by an Azerbaijani majority. When the fighting started again in late 2020, both Russia and Turkey supported Azerbaijan against Armenia, with the eventual peace negotiations between the two sides favouring Azerbaijan.
The deal, brokered by Russia, allowed Azerbaijan to keep land that it had taken and forced Armenia to pull its troops back while Russian soldiers acted as a peacekeeping force on the border. Turkey is a long supporter of Azerbaijan: it was the first state to formally recognise its independence in 1991, and it closed its borders to Armenians during the initial conflict in 1993.
Turkey has also been dealing with long-time American rivals Russia, purchasing arms earlier this year, which increased tensions with Biden’s administration. Further splits between America and Turkey might not have come as a shock to many.
The Biden administration’s recognition of the Armenian genocide is significant both culturally and politically, domestically and overseas. It marks a gradual shift of rhetoric of the Biden government towards bridge-building and goodwill within America, helping to validate many American-Armenians, and hopefully to heal old wounds.
But it also marks a return of an America that is an active standard-setter on the world stage, in much the same way that the Obama administration tried to be. Recent tensions with Russia and China, and now Turkey, are a return to soft-power neoliberalism that had disappeared under the previous administration, and will likely see the USA return to global leadership.
With efforts such as finally pulling all troops out of Afghanistan and enormous military spending in the budget, Biden’s America might be patiently waiting to lead in the next global crisis.
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