WASHINGTON—President Joe Biden has formally recognized that the systematic killings and deportations of hundreds of thousands of Armenians by Ottoman Empire forces in the early 20th century were “genocide”—using a term for the atrocities that his White House predecessors have avoided for decades.
With the acknowledgment, Biden followed through on a campaign promise he made a year ago April 24—the annual commemoration of Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day—to recognize that the events of 1915 to 1923 were a deliberate effort to wipe out Armenians.
