Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has urged U.S. President Joe Biden to reverse his declaration that the 1915 massacres of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire constituted genocide.
Speaking after a Cabinet meeting Erdogan said that the U.S. president has made baseless, unjust and untrue remarks about the sad events that took place in our geography over a century ago
Erdogan also called for Turkish and Armenian historians to form a joint commission to investigate the events adding that he hoped the U.S. president will turn back from this wrong step as soon as possible.
Biden’s declaration on Saturday infuriated its NATO ally Turkey, which has said the announcement had opened a deep wound in relations already strained over a host of issues.
Erdogan said “the wrong step” would hinder ties, advised the United States to “look in the mirror”, adding that Turkey still sought to establish “good neigbourly” ties with Armenia.
Erdogan also contested the death toll from the 1915 killings and said some 150,000 people had been killed, as opposed to the roughly 1.5 million people Armenia says were killed, adding the toll was “exaggerated by adding a zero to the end.
Turkey accepts that many Christian Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire were killed in clashes with Ottoman forces during World War One, but it contests the figures and denies that the killings were systematically orchestrated or constitute a genocide.
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