Turkey and Azerbaijan criticize Biden for recognizing Armenian Genocide

The Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) has treated the statement made by US President, Joe Biden, on the Armenian Genocide as populism; and Baku accused him of distorting the historical truth.

On April 24, Biden recognized the Armenian Genocide. Earlier, on October 30, 2019, this was done by the US House of Representatives.

Modern estimates of the number of Armenians who perished in the Ottoman Empire in 1915 vary from 200,000 (Turkish sources) to over 2 million (Armenian sources).

The Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said that he honours the memory of the Armenians who perished in 1915 and expressed condolences to their descendants, the RIA "Novosti" has reported.

Meanwhile, Mevlut Cavusoglu, the head of the Turkish MFA, has treated the Biden's statement as populism.

The website of the Azerbaijani MFA has noted that "the events of 1915 should be studied by historians, not politicians."

"Those who politicize the so-called 'Armenian Genocide' are silent about the massacres of more than 500,000 people by Armenian armed formations, as well as about the massacres committed by Armenian Dashnaks in March 1918 in Baku and other regions of Azerbaijan," the statement says.