US President Joe Biden on Sunday once again described the massacres of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire during World War I as genocide, sparking outrage in Turkey.
"We reject such statements and decisions that distort historical facts for political motives and condemn those who insist on this mistake," the Foreign Ministry in Ankara said.
For a second year in a row, Biden used the occasion of Armenia’s Remembrance Day to decry the genocide that took place more than a century ago.
"On April 24, 1915, Ottoman authorities arrested Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in Constantinople. Thus began the Armenian genocide — one of the worst mass atrocities of the 20th century," Biden's statement said.
"Today, we remember the one and a half million Armenians who were deported, massacred, or marched to their deaths in a campaign of extermination, and mourn the tragic loss of so many lives."
Ottoman Empire
In 2019, both chambers of the US Congress passed resolutions recognizing the Armenian genocide.
As the Ottoman Empire's legal successor, Turkey admits to massacres of 300,000 to 500,000 people, but vehemently rejects the classification as genocide.
Turkey says that both Armenians and Turks were killed in civil strife that occurred when Armenians rose up against their Ottoman rulers and sided with invading Russian troops.
