April 24, 2021
Today, April 24, 2021, Armenian Genocide Memorial Day, is now also the historic day on which the United States of America has completed full recognition of the Armenian Genocide after many years of evasion.
In the past there have been sparks of recognition from one or another senior level of American governance, for example the use of the term “Armenian Genocide” once by President Reagan, or earlier votes of recognition of the genocide by the House of Representatives, but at no time has there been a unity or a completeness to the American recognition. Now in the last year the House of Representatives voted by a huge majority to recognize the Armenian Genocide, the US Senate amazingly voted unanimously for recognition and now President Joe Biden has completed the sequence by becoming the first president to make this designation. The Washington Post commented, “Since the 1980s, Congress and various U.S. presidents have resisted lobbying by Armenian Americans for an official statement of recognition, for fear of upsetting a long-standing alliance with Turkey. ‘People are beginning to wake up to the fact that this is going to cause us hard times with Turkey,’ a congressional staffer told the New York Times in 1989. ‘Sure, there’s sympathy for the Armenian people, but it’s only prudent also to focus on the implications of this thing.’ For this reason, congressional resolutions on the Armenian genocide have languished year after year” (April 24, 2021).
President Biden’s statement of course was immediately denounced by Turkey. The Turkish Foreign Minister said, “We cannot change or rewrite history. We have nothing to learn from anybody on our own past… we entirely reject this statement based solely on populism” (Guardian, April 24, 2021).
The Institute on the Holocaust and Genocide Jerusalem applauds and celebrates warmly the United States’ Recognition of the Armenian Genocide, and recommits itself to its continuing long-term efforts to gain recognition of the Armenian Genocide by the State of Israel.