Then US Vice-President Joe Biden meets with Turkish President Recep Erdogan in Washington, DC on March 31, 2016. (PHOTO/BLOOMBERG)
US President Joe Biden told Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday that he intends to recognize the 1915 massacres of Armenians as a genocide, according to people familiar with a call between the leaders, a move that will likely strain already tense US-Turkish relations.
READ MORE: Erdogan says common interests with US outweigh differences
Biden is expected to use the word “genocide” in a statement Saturday recognizing Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day, making good on a promise from his presidential campaign. He would be the first US president in 40 years to publicly state that the mass killings during the final years of the Ottoman Empire were a genocide.
Biden would be the first US president in 40 years to publicly state that the mass killings during the final years of the Ottoman Empire were a genocide
The White House did not mention the issue in a statement about Biden’s call with Erdogan, the first of his presidency, saying only that Biden told the Turkish leader that he’s interested in a “constructive bilateral relationship with expanded areas of cooperation and effective management of disagreements.”
They agreed to meet during a NATO summit in Brussels in June, the White House said. But ties between Washington and Ankara have deteriorated over Turkey’s decision to purchase an air defense system from Russia, which led Donald Trump’s administration to impose unprecedented sanctions against a NATO member.
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The lira extended losses on news of the Biden-Erdogan call, dropping as much as 1 percent against the dollar. That took this week’s losses to 3.9 percent, the worst performance among emerging market currencies tracked by Bloomberg after the Peruvian sol.