Former Vice President Joe Biden marked Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day on Friday with a pledge to back a resolution recognizing the Ottoman Empire’s massacre of more than 1 million mostly Christian Armenians as a genocide.
Biden’s announcement sets up a direct contrast with the Donald Trump administration, which has upheld decades of bipartisan tradition by refusing to label the massacre a genocide for fear of infuriating NATO ally Turkey. But as US-Turkish relations deteriorate, both chambers of Congress officially recognized the genocide for the first time last year.