On April 24, 2024, President Joe Biden decided again to play prosecutor, judge, and jury to convict Turkiye of genocide of Armenians beginning on April 24, 1915. No judicial tribunal has ever entered such a judgment, as the European Court of Human Rights underscored in Perincek v. Switzerland (2015). The International Court of Justice has been open to entertaining such claim under Article IX of the Genocide Convention for 73 years. But Armenia has run away from such an independent and impartial judicial proceeding.
Not a single word in President Biden’s statement would be admissible evidence in a genocide prosecution.
Mr. Biden omits an elephant in the living room: the heroization of Armenians like Harry Sassounian and terrorist organizations like the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia and the Justice Commandoes of the Armenian Genocide who assassinate innocent Turks like Kemal Arikan to avenge the alleged crime stoked by statements like his own. This is the “healing” that President Biden celebrates!
Mr. Biden’s statement reaches an Orwellian level in deploring mass atrocities that allegedly transpired 109 years ago while shutting his eyes to the mass atrocities, including starvation, perpetrated by the Israeli government against 2.2 million Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
President has disgraced the rule of law and justice by his fact-free assertions to curry political support from Armenians, especially the well-endowed Armenian National Committee or America.
Bruce Fein
Counsel, Turkish Anti-Defamation Alliance