总统乔·拜登一个多世纪前，奥斯曼帝国正式承认对亚美尼亚人的屠杀和驱逐是一场种族灭绝，与他的前任决裂，并冒着加剧与亚美尼亚的紧张关系的风险火鸡。

拜登作为总统候选人承诺承认亚美尼亚人在当今土耳其遭受的待遇是种族灭绝。亚美尼亚裔美国人长期以来一直呼吁美国总统这样做，但北约的主要盟友土耳其警告美国不要这样做，长期以来一直认为暴力是第一次世界大战期间血腥冲突的一部分。

土耳其总统雷杰普·塔伊普·埃尔多安(Recep Tayyip Erdogan)的政府表示，“我们拒绝并最强烈地谴责”拜登的任命，并补充说，这“将打开一个深深的伤口，破坏我们的相互信任和友谊。”

土耳其总统通过美联社，文件

在这张2021年3月24日的档案照片中，土耳其总统雷杰普·塔伊普·埃尔多安在演讲时做手势

近年来，这两个盟友之间的关系越来越紧张，尽管拜登星期五终于与埃尔多安通了电话，这是他们在拜登任期内的第一次通话，并转达了“他对建设性双边关系的兴趣，扩大了合作领域，有效地管理了分歧。”

拜登在周六纪念“亚美尼亚纪念日”的声明中使用了“种族灭绝”一词。106年前，散居在外的亚美尼亚人认为这是种族灭绝的开始。前任总统避免使用这个标签，即使他们做了传统的年度宣言来纪念周年。

拜登在声明中说:“每年的这一天，我们都会缅怀所有在奥斯曼时代亚美尼亚种族灭绝中死去的人，并再次承诺防止这种暴行再次发生。”他补充说:“美国人民向所有在始于106年前的今天的大屠杀中丧生的亚美尼亚人致敬。”。

这份声明是意料之中的，尤其是在当时的候选人拜登在去年的纪念日说“沉默是共谋”之后。

通用图像集团通过盖蒂图像

1915年，一群亚美尼亚难民在营救他们的法国巡洋舰甲板上扎营。

他写道:“如果我们不完全承认、纪念和教导我们的孩子关于种族灭绝的知识，那么‘永远不再’这个词就失去了意义。”他承诺支持一项国会决议，该决议承认奥斯曼帝国的行为是种族灭绝。众议院和参议院在2019年通过了承认种族灭绝的决议，但前总统唐纳德·特朗普，像他的前辈一样，从未加入他们。

周三，100多名国会两党议员致信拜登，呼吁他利用他的公告正式将发生的事情定性为“种族灭绝”。

奥斯曼土耳其人从1915年开始驱逐了大约200万亚美尼亚人。估计约有150万亚美尼亚人被杀害。

土耳其政府同意战争期间的战斗杀死了许多人，但它长期以来否认穆斯林奥斯曼人对基督教亚美尼亚人的待遇相当于种族灭绝，并说死亡人数较低。

据总部设在华盛顿的亚美尼亚国家研究所(Armenian National Institute)称，20多个国家已经承认这些暴行是种族灭绝。该研究所倡导将亚美尼亚定性为种族灭绝。

拜登的声明没有法律含义，即使国务院随后发表了正式声明，也没有自动制裁或其他处罚。在前总统唐纳德·特朗普执政的最后一天，特朗普政府宣布中国政府对维吾尔人和其他穆斯林少数民族的待遇是种族灭绝，而没有实施制裁。

凯伦·米纳相/法新社，通过盖蒂图像，文件

2019年10月30日，人们参观位于亚美尼亚埃里温的Tsitsernakaberd亚美尼亚种族灭绝纪念馆。

但这些言论将扰乱美土关系，美土关系已经因一连串分歧而陷入僵局，并可能损害拜登和埃尔多安之间的关系，埃尔多安与特朗普关系融洽。特朗普经常吹捧他与强人总统的“友谊”，并一再对他的政府手下留情，直到他的手被政治压力，包括来自国会共和党人的压力所迫使。

去年12月，他的政府因土耳其政府官员及其国防采购机构购买俄罗斯导弹系统而对其进行制裁，而这些制裁是在这些制裁到期多年后，也是在国会一周前投票推动他之后。在似乎给埃尔多安开了绿灯后，他还批准了土耳其高级官员入侵叙利亚北部，打击与美国军队一起打击伊斯兰国的库尔德武装。

就土耳其政府而言，它长期以来一直敦促美国交出费图拉·葛兰(Fetullah Gulen)，这位神职人员在宾夕法尼亚州拥有合法的永久居留权，埃尔多安被指控在2016年煽动针对他的政变。土耳其还认为这些叙利亚库尔德武装是一种生存威胁，因为他们与土耳其库尔德人有联系，土耳其和美国已将他们指定为恐怖组织，谴责美国的支持是背叛。

在拜登的领导下，这种紧张局势预计不会有什么改善。拜登星期五在一些分析师认为是冷淡之后与埃尔多安进行了交谈。白宫表示，两位领导人同意在6月北约峰会期间会面，“讨论全面的双边和地区问题”，尽管尚不清楚他们是否事先讨论了拜登的种族灭绝评论。

Biden makes history by declaring killings of Armenians a 'genocide'

PresidentJoe Bidenformally recognized the Ottoman Empire's killing and deportation of Armenians over a century ago as a genocide, breaking from his predecessors and risking inflaming tensions withTurkey.

Biden had pledged as a presidential candidate to recognize the Armenians' treatment, which took place in modern-day Turkey, as genocide. Armenian-Americans have long called on U.S. presidents to do so, but Turkey, a key NATO ally, has warned the U.S. against it, long maintaining that the violence was part of bloody clashes during World War I.

The Turkish government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said "we reject and denounce in the strongest terms" Biden's designation, adding it "will open a deep wound that undermines our mutual trust and friendship."

Ties between the two allies have been increasingly strained in recent years, although Biden finally spoke to Erdogan Friday -- their first call during Biden's tenure -- and conveyed "his interest in a constructive bilateral relationship with expanded areas of cooperation and effective management of disagreements."

Biden used the word "genocide" in a statement to mark "Armenian Remembrance Day" on Saturday -- 106 years after the events that the Armenian diaspora considers the start of the genocide. Previous presidents had avoided using the label even as they made the traditional, annual proclamation honoring the anniversary.

"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 the statement. "The American people honor all those Armenians who perished in the genocide that began 106 years ago today," he added.

The statement was expected, especially after then-candidate Biden marked last year's remembrance day by saying, "Silence is complicity."

"If we do not fully acknowledge, commemorate, and teach our children about genocide, the words 'never again' lose their meaning," he wrote, pledging to back a congressional resolution that recognized the Ottoman Empire's actions as genocide. Resolutions to recognize the genocide passed the House and Senate in 2019, but former PresidentDonald Trump, like his predecessors, never joined them.

On Wednesday, over 100 bipartisan members of Congress sent a letter to Biden calling on him to use his proclamation to officially label what happened a "genocide."

The Ottoman Turks deported around 2 million Armenians starting in 1915. Around 1.5 million Armenians are estimated to have been killed.

The Turkish government agrees that fighting during the war killed many, but it has long denied that the treatment of the Christian Armenians by the Muslim Ottomans amounted to genocide and says that the death toll was lower.

Over two-dozen countries have recognized the atrocities as genocide, according to the Armenian National Institute, a Washington-based group that advocates for the genocide designation.

Biden's statement carries no legal implication, and even if the State Department were to follow up with a formal declaration, there are no automatic sanctions or other penalties that kick in. On its final day with former President Donald Trump in office, the Trump administration declared the Chinese government's treatment of Uighurs and other Muslim ethnic minorities as genocide, without implementing sanctions.

But the comments will rattle U.S.-Turkish relations, already on ice over a litany of disagreements, and could damage relations between Biden and Erdogan, who had a warm relationship with Trump. Trump often touted his "friendship" with the strongman president and repeatedly pulled punches against his government until his hand was forced by political pressure, including from congressional Republicans.

His administration sanctioned Turkish government officials and its defense procurement agency in December for the purchase of a Russian missile system -- years after those sanctions were obligated and only after Congress voted to push him a week prior. After seeming to give Erdogan a green light, he also sanctioned senior Turkish officials for their incursion into northern Syria against Kurdish forces that fought alongside U.S. troops against ISIS.

For its part, Turkey's government has long urged the U.S. to hand over Fetullah Gulen, a cleric who has lawful permanent residency in Pennsylvania and whom Erdogan has accused of fomenting a 2016 coup d'état against him. Turkey also views those Syrian Kurdish forces as an existential threat because of their ties to Turkish Kurds that Turkey and the U.S. have designated a terrorist group -- condemning U.S. support as a betrayal.

Little of that tension was expected to improve under Biden, who spoke to Erdogan Friday after what some analysts considered a cold shoulder. The two leaders agreed to meet on the sidelines of a NATO summit in June "to discuss the full range of bilateral and regional issues," the White House said, although it's unclear whether they discussed Biden's genocide comment in advance.