President Joe Biden’s Armenia Day statement on Wednesday outraged Armenian groups. That’s because the president did not mention the modern-day genocide against Armenian Christians in the Nagorno-Karabakh region carried out this year by Muslim Azerbaijan’s conquering forces.
Some Armenian-American leaders have accused Biden of actively supporting the conquest of Azerbaijan, a convenient excuse for Biden to avoid mentioning Armenia Day. Some say it was used as a. Armenians and their supporters marched in front of the White House on Wednesday demanding “justice” for both the 1915 and 2023 genocides.
AYF March for Justice for the Armenian Genocide (1915) and Artsakh Genocide (2023) at the White House https://t.co/qH9vNOnBt0
— ANCA (@ANCA_DC) April 24, 2024
armenian day Commemorated every year on April 24, this day is considered by historians to be the beginning of Meds Yegern, the Armenian genocide carried out by the Ottoman Empire in 1915.
April 24 was the day Ottoman authorities arrested hundreds of prominent Armenians and forced them into exile. Armenians living in Turkey had an uneasy relationship with the government, which feared it would start a separatist movement. Enraged by their humiliation at the hands of Christian forces during the First Balkan War of 1912-1913, Turkish nationalists turned their rage against the Christian minority of the Armenian people, using them to destroy the Ottoman Empire. They came to be seen as a seditious people colluding with the European powers. .
The defection of Armenian intellectuals was quickly followed by a mass deportation of Armenians from Turkey. This has gone from ethnic cleansing to degeneration into a state. Genocide When the Turkish army began massacring Armenian refugees and forcing them into concentration camps. At least 1.5 million Armenians were killed, out of an estimated 2 million people living in the Ottoman Empire, and some historians believe the full death toll was much higher. In the midst of the mad bloodshed of World War I, the Armenian death march provided a chilling preview of the horrors to come in World War II.
The Armenian genocide remains politically controversial in modern times. That’s because every Turkish government, from the ruins of the Ottoman Empire to the current dictatorship, strongly resists labeling the event a “genocide” despite overwhelming historical evidence. .
For example, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said: claimed that In 2019, after “Armenian gangs and their supporters … massacred Muslims, including women and children,” the genocide became a “rational action” to “relocate” an unruly population. He insisted that it was not too much.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks to participants during a rally to show solidarity with the Palestinian people in Istanbul, Turkey, Saturday, October 28, 2023. (Emra Guler/Associated Press)
Istanbul officials on Armenia Day 2024 Banned A ceremony to commemorate the genocide was scheduled because the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic provided a convenient excuse to ban ceremonies from 2020 onwards.
On Wednesday, April 23, 2024, Armenians take part in the annual torch march on the eve of Genocide Remembrance Day, starting from Republic Square and ending at the Tsitsernakavert Genocide Memorial. Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day is a public holiday and is celebrated on April 24th every year. To commemorate the victims of the Armenian genocide from 1915 to 1923 (Anthony Pizzoferrato / Middle East Images / Middle East Images via AFP)
President Erdoğan is statement Wednesday mourned “the Armenians of the Ottoman Empire who died in the difficult circumstances of World War I,” as if most of them were soldiers who died fighting for the empire that massacred them. expressed his intention.
President Erdoğan expressed his condolences to all Ottoman citizens who were martyred as a result of internal conflict, insurgency and guerrilla violence. [sic] This was a reversal of previous claims that Armenians had profited from their mistreatment of Muslims, and he ended by claiming that the government “will not forgive a single Muslim.” He concluded. [our] The Armenian people will be ostracized and will feel secondary in their own country. ”
The American government generally knew that while acknowledging the deaths of Armenians during World War I, it would infuriate the government of Turkey, a strategically important but politically unstable member of the North Atlantic Treaty. Balance has been achieved by avoiding the term “genocide.” Organization (NATO).
For example, then-President Donald Trump paid a tribute He condemned the Armenian genocide as “one of the worst mass atrocities of the 20th century,” but resisted efforts in the Senate to formally condemn the events of 1915 as a “genocide.” At the time, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had threatened to close the key Incirlik air base in Turkey, and possibly more U.S. military facilities, citing both the genocide controversy and disagreements with the United States over Syria policy.
However, Biden did Uses the word “genocide” in his language statement Armenia Day 2021. Turkey’s political situation had changed somewhat by then, so Erdogan’s complaints were much more moderate than in 2019, but he vowed to “defend the truth from the lies of the so-called ‘Armenians'” genocide. . ”
In his speech, Biden once again referred to Mezz Yeghan as an “Armenian genocide.” statement On Wednesday, he paid tribute to the “resilience of the Armenian people” and said the Armenian diaspora “strengthened state structures around the world.”
What made this statement controversial was that Biden said nothing about Azerbaijan’s atrocities. ethnic cleansing They are a group of Armenian Christians from Nagorno-Karabakh, a disputed region that has sparked several clashes and a recent war between Azerbaijan and Armenia.
Azeri conquered It invaded the region by force in September 2023, destroying the Armenian Republic of Artsakh and turning about 120,000 residents into refugees.
Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) Said Biden maintained a “shameful silence” about the conquest of Artsakh, which the committee called a “genocide.” Worse yet, this genocide was a crime Biden said was “actively armed and morally emboldened.”
“He is using the memory of past genocide (by Turkey) to cover up the current genocide (by Azerbaijan),” ANCA charged.
ANCA gave only to Biden. lukewarm praise Recognition of the Armenian Genocide in 2021 came after decades of effort by Armenians around the world, through the House and Senate, all 50 states, countless local governments, and multiple NATO allies. He only did so after scoring at the yard line.
“Not that Biden was like that.” bystander For the genocide of Christian Armenians in Artsakh by Azerbaijan.he intuitive – but on the side of genocide. “He armed and emboldened Azerbaijan as it systematically blockaded, committed acts of terrorism, and carried out ethnic cleansing of indigenous and innocent civilians,” the group said. Said.
Alex Galitsky, ANCA’s Washington DC program director, said: credited Biden took credit for being “the first president to recognize the Armenian genocide,” but the day before that groundbreaking recognition, Biden “reauthorized military aid to Azerbaijan. “It was an encouraging decision,” he said, adding that it was even more outrageous.
Galitsky said Biden “authorized one genocide to enable another.”He also accused Biden said he had “turned a blind eye” to Azerbaijan’s punitive blockade against Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh before the final offensive began. The blockade has caused a massive humanitarian crisis, condemned by some observers as an attempt to use “famine as a means of genocide”
Galitsky also mercilessly criticized Biden’s predecessor and potential successor, Donald Trump, for “sending millions of dollars in military aid to Azerbaijan before the 2020 Artsakh war.” criticized. He said he preferred dark horse candidate Robert Kennedy Jr. as “the only candidate who will demand accountability for Azerbaijan’s Artsakh genocide.”
Kennedy is address recorded on videotape Addressing demonstrators on Armenia Day, he called for tough US sanctions against Azerbaijan and condemned Azerbaijanis for taking Armenians “hostage” in Nagorno-Karabakh and forcing them to leave the region in 2023. demanded the right of return for all Armenian refugees. .
“Today we commemorate the 109th anniversary of the start of the Armenian Genocide, but the plight of the Armenian people is not over. We must recommit to ending ethnic cleansing and defending the right of Armenians to self-determination. “No,” President Kennedy said.
Biden was certainly saving money. flowing Cutting off access to U.S. taxpayer funds to Azerbaijan angers the Azerbaijani government and threatens to make peace, even after Azerbaijan went to war with Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh and cut off humanitarian aid with the egregious Lachin Corridor blockade. Because the administration felt it had enough to stop it. Talks with Armenia.
Technically speaking, military aid to Azerbaijan has been prohibited since Azerbaijan began the first war over Nagorno-Karabakh in 1992. However, starting in 2001, Congress allowed the State Department to waive the ban, effectively neutralizing it. Could be a useful Muslim ally against Iran.
trump administration excited millions of people As Galitsky ruefully pointed out, Azerbaijan entered Azerbaijan because Azerbaijan appeared to be hostile to both Iran and Russia, while Armenia was wisely cozying up to Moscow. –After seeing Russia’s useless “peacekeepers” sit on their hands While Azerbaijan crushes Artsakh, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan appears to be reconsidering the alliance.
Biden’s State Department has largely continued these policies, rushing to assure Azerbaijan that it values the United States’ “strategic partnership with Azerbaijan,” even as Christians in Artsakh battle disease and hunger.
In November 2023, the Senate passed it The bill that ultimately ended U.S. security assistance to Azerbaijan was intended to “send a strong message” of its abhorrence of ethnic cleansing, as well as growing concerns that Azerbaijan would attack Armenia itself.The house is not passed yet The Armenia Protection Act would end Azerbaijan’s exemption from the funding ban for at least two years.
ANCA added subtle criticism to its criticism of Biden’s silence on Artsakh ethnic cleansing. political threat“With Biden’s approval ratings declining in key battleground states, it is clear that Michigan (home to 72,000 Armenians) will play a decisive role in choosing the next president. ”
“On April 24, Biden continues to enrage Armenian voters by arming Azerbaijan and abandoning Christian Armenians,” the ANCA added, adding that Biden continues to infuriate Armenian voters in Michigan by arming Azerbaijan and abandoning Christian Armenians. He suggested that the chances of getting one may be slipping away.
Although unstated, Biden is already concerned about Michigan, as enlightened Armenian-American groups are no doubt well aware. angry at him For not standing more firmly against Israel during the Gaza war.
