Biden formally recognizes 1915 atrocities against Armenians as genocide
24 April 2021
President Biden on Saturday formally recognized the 1915 mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turkish forces as an act of genocide.
Why it matters: The unprecedented designation, which comes on Armenian Remembrance Day, will likely infuriate Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who has previously warned a genocide declaration would harm U.S.-Turkey relations.
- Armenian communities, lawmakers and human rights activists have lobbied for recognizing the mass killing as a genocide for years.
- Biden as a presidential candidate in April 2o2o vowed to make the symbolic designation if elected.
- Previous administrations, including the Trump administration, typically steered clear of the designation to avoid straining relations with Turkey, who is a NATO member and has been seen as crucial to containing Russia and managing issues in the Middle East.
Context: The mass killing occurred when the Ottoman Turks attempted to transport Armenians from eastern Anatolia to the Syrian desert during World War I. Armenians estimate that up to 1.5 million died. Turkey has recognized atrocities occurred during this time, but denies it was an act genocide and says the death toll is exaggerated.
- Former President Reagan in 1981 referenced the Armenian genocide in a statement about the Holocaust.
- The Senate passed a resolution in 2019 that recognized Turkey's genocide of the Armenian people, though the State Department under the Trump administration said the resolution did not formally change the U.S. stance on the issue. The House passed a similar resolution that same year.
- Former President Trump called the mass killings in an April 2019 statement commemorating Armenian Remembrance Day "one of the worst mass atrocities of the 20th century," but he stopped short of labeling them a genocide.
Worth noting: Biden spoke to Erdoğan in a phone call Friday and conveyed his interest in "a constructive bilateral relationship with expanded areas of cooperation and effective management of disagreements," according to a White House readout of the call.
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.