Biden's Armenian "genocide" statement tests U.S.-Turkish ties

ANKARA, April 27 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Joe Biden's recognition of the atrocities to Armenians during World War I as "genocide" is putting the relationship between Turkey and the U.S. to the test, experts said.

Biden on Saturday recognized the mass killing against Armenians more than a century ago as a "genocide." The declaration has infuriated Ankara, followed a much-awaited first telephone conversation between Biden and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan since the U.S. presidential elections.

"We entirely reject this statement based solely on populism," criticized Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, warning the decision has left a "deep wound" in relations between the two allies locked in a host of disagreements in recent years.

The U.S. Ambassador to Turkey David Satterfield was summoned on Saturday night by Turkey's Foreign Ministry.

Turkey maintains that the killings of Armenians during World War I in 1915 was not systematically orchestrated and that they died in wartime conditions.

Biden is the first U.S. president to use the term "genocide" in describing the 1915 events.

"Genocide is a loaded term. It is arguably the heaviest accusation defined by international law," Sinan Ulgen, chairman of the Istanbul-based EDAM think tank, told Xinhua.

"U.S. President Biden's remarks on the qualification of the tragic events in 1915 as a 'genocide' are fully in contradiction with norms of responsible statecraft," Ulgen noted, adding that this new row is adding pressure to an already strained bilateral ties.

There are several thorny issues between Turkey and the U.S., including Turkey's purchase of Russian S-400 air defense systems, the U.S. support to Syrian Kurdish fighters, and the court case in the U.S. against the Turkish state-owned Halk Bankasi, which was accused of helping Iran evade U.S. sanctions.

The U.S. responded to Turkey's purchase of the S-400s by suspending Turkey's involvement in the F-35 fighter jet program and targeting Turkey's military procurement agency with sanctions.

"We consider the use of the term 'genocide' as an insult to the Turkish nation as a whole and bilateral ties will likely suffer from it as we were hoping for a normalization process between our countries," a source close to the Turkish government told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

However, some observers have also pointed out that there was no reference in Biden's statement on modern-day Turkey which was founded on the ashes of the Ottoman empire in 1923.

Turkey's reaction was restrained as Ankara did not summon its ambassador in Washington for consultations like it did for other nations which have recognised in the past the Armenian "genocide," trying seemingly to prevent further damage in relations.

"Ankara is not mulling a complete derailment of ties with the United States. There are so many topics which the two countries are working on together, and neither side can afford their ties to come to a grinding halt," foreign policy analyst Serkan Demirtas told Xinhua.

"That's why Erdogan and Biden agreed during their phone conversation to meet in person on June 14 in Brussels on the occasion of the NATO leaders' summit," he remarked.

However, the continuation of this sort of unfriendly acts against Turkey, Demirtas warned, will create more distance between Turkey and the U.S. and ultimately the West.

One of the reasons of Ankara's policy is the fragile situation of the Turkish economy, dependent on imports, and suffering from the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic, but also from domestic financial vulnerabilities.

The Turkish currency lira slid on Monday morning to a near all-time low against the U.S. dollar, reaching 8.48 lira for one dollar.

The Turkish currency has lost half of its value since a currency meltdown in 2018, triggered by a diplomatic row with the United States.