Turkey summons US Envoy over Biden's recognition of Armenian massacre as 'genocide'

Turkey's foreign ministry on Sunday summoned the US Ambassador to Ankara David Satterfield over US President Joe Biden's recognition of the 1915 massacres of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire as a "genocide".

The ministry also noted that it is a "strong reaction" from Turkey's part, Sputnik reported.

On Saturday, Biden has formally declared that the massacre of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Empire more than a century ago, as "genocide."

"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 released by the White House.

"Beginning on April 24, 1915, with the arrest of Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in Constantinople by Ottoman authorities, one and a half million Armenians were deported, massacred, or marched to their deaths in a campaign of extermination," Biden continued.

"We honour the victims of the Meds Yeghern so that the horrors of what happened are never lost to history. And we remember so that we remain ever-vigilant against the corrosive influence of hate in all its forms," he added.

Earlier, Turkey's foreign minister said ahead of the announcement this week that recognising the Armenian genocide would harm ties between Washington and Ankara, reported The Hill.

Turkey has long resisted the idea that the killings amounted to genocide, saying that both Armenians and Turks lost their lives in war as the Ottoman Empire fell. They also say the number of Armenians killed was 300,000.

( With inputs from ANI )