Armenia welcomes Biden’s recognition of the genocide and Azerbaijan considers it a falsification of history

The Turkish Foreign Ministry said on Saturday evening that it had summoned the US ambassador to Ankara, following US President Joe Biden’s admission that the Armenian massacres were genocide.

For his part, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan told US President Joe Biden in a letter Saturday that recognition of the genocide is a matter of Armenia’s security after the war in Nagorno Karabakh last year.

Biden said on Saturday that the massacres and deportations that Armenians were subjected to in 1915 during the Ottoman Empire constituted genocide.

“The recognition of the genocide is a matter of truth, historical justice and the security of the Republic of Armenia, especially in light of the events that took place in our region last year,” Pashinyan said in his letter to Biden posted on his website.

A six-week conflict between Azerbaijani forces and those of Armenian descent around Nagorno Karabakh and surrounding areas ended with a deal brokered by Russia in November.

The agreement guaranteed for Azerbaijan the field gains it achieved on the ground, with the support of its close ally Turkey.

But Azerbaijan said that Biden’s statement “distorts the events that occurred 100 years ago”.

“Falsifying history, attempting to rewrite history and using it as a tool for political pressure is unacceptable,” the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Saturday.

For his part, the leader of the Turkish National Movement Party, Devlet Bahçeli, said that US President Joe Biden’s scandalous statement about the events of 1915 carries the risk of Turkish-American relations sliding into a completely different course.

This came in a tweet on Twitter, Saturday, commenting on Biden’s description of the events of 1915 as a “genocide” against Armenians.

Bahçeli said, “There is no genocide or massacre in the history of our honorable people, as our history is completely pure in this regard”.

He added that history is the source and basis of claims, and that distorting simple historical facts with prejudices through political goals, tactical statements and unfounded rhetoric will severely nullify humanity’s search for peace and stability.