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Turkey has summoned the US ambassador following President Joe Biden’s decision to recognise the Armenian genocide in a remembrance day statement.
The country’s foreign ministry has summoned the American ambassador in Ankara, Turkey’s capital, to protest the description of the killing of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman Turks, beginning in 1915.
Deputy foreign minister Sedat Onal met David Satterfield late on Saturday to express Ankara’s strong condemnation.
“The statement does not have legal ground in terms of international law and has hurt the Turkish people, opening a wound that’s hard to fix in our relations,” the ministry said.
The White House broke with previous administrations in its adoption of the phrase, with American presidents having long avoided using the term in order to not anger a major ally in the region
“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,” said Mr Biden in the statement.
He added: “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.
The president concluded: “The American people honor all those Armenians who perished in the genocide that began 106 years ago today,”
Modern-day Turkey, which emerged from the Ottoman era, has always denied that a genocide took place.
They reject the use of the word, saying both Turks and Armenians were killed, and have called for a joint history commission to investigate.
The White House declaration immediately prompted statements of condemnation from Turkish officials. However, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is yet to address the issue.
Mr Biden made a promise in his 2020 campaign to recognise the genocide. Former presidents Barack Obama and George W Bush made similar promises but instead referred to it as a “mass atrocity” or “mass killings.”
Additional reporting by the Associated Press
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