ArmInfo.The use of the international Term genocide in defining the tragic events of the first quarter of the 20th century in Turkey demonstrates US President Joe Biden's preference for values over pragmatic policies. Similar opinion
Sergey Markedonov, a leading researcher at the MGIMO Institute of International Studies and editor-in-chief of the International Analytics magazine, expressed his opinion to ArmInfo. "It is important for the US President to demonstrate to his own voters the preference he gives to the policy of "values" in the face of cynical political pragmatism. It is no secret that American politicians and presidents, in particular, have for many years preferred to evade the definition of genocide, preferring to replace it with softer, more opportunistic analogues. And US presidents, as a rule, used a synonym for genocide - "Metz Egern", - he recalled.
On April 24, US President Joe Biden used the term "genocide"in his statement on the occasion of the 106th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire.
Noting that the" problem of Russia "for the United States is not so much a foreign policy problem as an internal policy problem, Markedonov stressed that significantly inferior to it in its scope, the "problem of Turkey" gradually led to the spread of the term genocide, so undesirable for Ankara, among the political elite in Washington. This, in particular, was expressed by the resolutions adopted in 2019 by both houses of the US Congress on the recognition of the Armenian Genocide.
In general, according to Markedonov, speaking the word genocide, Biden, by and large, shows no less cynicism and political prudence than all his predecessors who evaded this. According to the analyst, Turkey has been causing extreme irritation in Washington for quite a long time and is a very inconvenient partner for the United States. In this light, Biden's preference for historical and value-based methods of exerting pressure on Ankara, which, according to Washington, is too presumptuous, looks quite reasonable. "Thus, at the heart of Washington's desire to appeal to the past is not so much a desire to restore historical justice, but rather a concern for the present. It is no secret that the United States has long faced an acute dilemma with regard to Erdogan's Turkey. Ankara is a very obstinate ally, but Washington does not want to finally push it into the arms of Moscow and Tehran with its own hands. But to demonstrate their own capabilities by exerting pressure through the recognition of the Armenian Genocide is a completely different matter. Moreover, the recognition of the genocide by the two houses of Congress did not bring down relations between the United States and Turkey," the analyst concluded.
"Every year on this day, we remember the lives of all those who died during the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman era, and once again commit to prevent the recurrence of such atrocities. Beginning on April 24, 1915, after the arrest of Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in Constantinople by the Ottoman authorities, one and a half million Armenians were deported, killed, or sent to their deaths in a campaign of extermination. We honor the victims of Metz Egern so that the horrors of what happened will never escape history. And we remember this to remain vigilant against the corrosive influence of hate in all its forms. The American people honor all the Armenians who died as a result of the genocide that began 106 years ago, " the US President said in a statement.