Turkish FM calls US President Biden 'charlatan' over Armenian genocide remark

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu on April 24 called U.S. President Joe Biden “charlatan” over the latter’s statement on the Armenian genocide.

“Yet another attempt by political charlatans to distort history! Politically-driven statements cannot change the facts. Those intentionally insisting on their mistakes are destined to be remembered as hypocrites. No one shall dare to lecture us on our history,” Çavuşoğlu said in a tweet without explicitly mentioning Biden’s name.

Yet another attempt by political charlatans to distort history!

Politically-driven statements cannot change the facts.

Those intentionally insisting on their mistakes are destined to be remembered as hypocrites.

No one shall dare to lecture us on our history. #1915events — Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu (@MevlutCavusoglu) April 24, 2023

State-run Anadolu Agency reported the minister’s remarks as “Çavuşoğlu responded to Biden's statement regarding the 1915 Events.”

In a statement marking the Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day, Biden said “On April 24, 1915, Ottoman authorities arrested Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in Constantinople—the start of a systematic campaign of violence against the Armenian community. In the years that followed, one and a half million Armenians were deported, massacred, or marched to their deaths—a tragedy that forever affected generations of Armenian families.”

Biden was also the first U.S. president describing the 1915 events as “genocide.”

Turkey accepts that many Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire were killed in clashes with Ottoman forces in World War One, but denies the killings were systematically orchestrated and constitute genocide. Turkey rather says the clashes were reciprocal.