POTUS Joe Biden Recognizes Armenian Genocide on its 106th Anniversary

April 26, 2021 By in Ambassadors, Americans Abroad, Biden, Diplomatic History, Foreign Affairs, Realities of the FS, State Department Tags: , , , , , , ,
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Finally. The “G” word ended its course as a  “landmine” on April 24.  President Joe Biden officially recognized as Armenian Genocide what the State Department used to call “The Events of 1915”. See the link below from former  diplomat Dan Fried on the long handwringing over this. Also find a link below to the book by the former U.S. Ambassador to Turkey, Henry Morgenthau, Sr. who wrote about the genocide in 1918.

Statement by President Joe Biden on Armenian Remembrance Day

Each year on this day, we remember the lives of all those who died in the Ottoman-era Armenian genocide and recommit ourselves to preventing such an atrocity from ever again occurring. Beginning on April 24, 1915, with the arrest of Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in Constantinople by Ottoman authorities, one and a half million Armenians were deported, massacred, or marched to their deaths in a campaign of extermination. We honor the victims of the Meds Yeghern so that the horrors of what happened are never lost to history. And we remember so that we remain ever-vigilant against the corrosive influence of hate in all its forms.

Of those who survived, most were forced to find new homes and new lives around the world, including in the United States. With strength and resilience, the Armenian people survived and rebuilt their community. Over the decades Armenian immigrants have enriched the United States in countless ways, but they have never forgotten the tragic history that brought so many of their ancestors to our shores. We honor their story. We see that pain. We affirm the history. We do this not to cast blame but to ensure that what happened is never repeated.

Today, as we mourn what was lost, let us also turn our eyes to the future—toward the world that we wish to build for our children. A world unstained by the daily evils of bigotry and intolerance, where human rights are respected, and where all people are able to pursue their lives in dignity and security. Let us renew our shared resolve to prevent future atrocities from occurring anywhere in the world. And let us pursue healing and reconciliation for all the people of the world.

The American people honor all those Armenians who perished in the genocide that began 106 years ago today.

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