Biden Recognizes Armenian Genocide

President Biden formally recognized the Armenian genocide on Saturday, in a statement coinciding with the Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day observed in that country.

“Each year on this day, we remember the lives of all those who died in the Ottoman-era Armenian genocide and recommit ourselves to preventing such an atrocity from ever again occurring,” Biden said in a statement. “We honor their story. We see that pain. We affirm the history,” Biden added. “We do this not to cast blame but to ensure that what happened is never repeated.”

Biden is the first U.S. president to follow through on a campaign promise to recognize the mass murder and ethnic cleansing of roughly 1 million Armenians by Ottoman forces during World War I as a genocide.