Catholicos of All Armenians Garegin II said on Saturday, April 24 that he sent a letter to US President Joe Biden with gratitude for the recognition of the Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire.
“We sent a letter to US President Joseph Biden, in which, on our behalf and on behalf of the entire Armenian people, they expressed gratitude for his fair position in the message of April 24,” reads a statement posted on the Armenian spiritual leader’s Facebook page.
In addition, the document emphasizes that the recognition by the United States of the genocide in Ottoman Turkey, which occurred 106 years ago, is of particular importance “in this difficult historical period, given the recent events in Nagorno-Karabakh.
On Saturday, the United States Ambassador to Ankara David Satterfield was summoned to the Foreign Ministry in Turkey, where the department expressed his strong protest in connection with Biden’s official recognition of the Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire.
Earlier in the day, the Armenian Foreign Ministry stated that the country welcomes the recognition made by US President Joe Biden.
Earlier, on April 24, Biden called the events of the early 20th century in Ottoman Turkey “the Armenian genocide.” Biden’s predecessors as head of state avoided using the term.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Ottoman Empire persecuted the Armenian population. According to a number of historians, over 1.5 million Armenians were killed in 1915. The fact of genocide was recognized by more than 20 countries, Ankara rejects the very term “genocide”, claiming that in those years there was a fratricidal war and great losses were suffered by each side of the conflict.
The Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Armenian Genocide in Armenia is annually celebrated on April 24