Biden says Armenian mass killing was genocide
Joe Biden has become the first US president to issue a statement formally describing the 1915 massacre of Armenians as a genocide.
The killings occurred in the waning days of the Ottoman Empire, the forerunner of modern-day Turkey.
But the issue is highly sensitive, with Turkey acknowledging atrocities but rejecting the term "genocide".
Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Saturday that Turkey "entirely rejects" the united states decision.
"We won't take lessons from anyone on our history," he tweeted.
Later the Turkish foreign ministry said it had summoned the US ambassador to convey Ankara's "strong reaction".
Previous US administrations have not used the word genocide in formal statements amid concerns over damaging relations with Turkey, a Nato ally.
Mr Biden's statement, released as Armenia commemorates the beginning of the mass killings, said: "We remember the lives of all those that died in the Ottoman-era Armenian genocide and recommit ourselves to avoiding this atrocity from again occurring.
"And we remember so that we remain ever-vigilant against the corrosive influence of hate in every its forms."
Mr Biden said the intention was "never to cast blame but to ensure that what happened is never repeated".
He previously previously welcomed a move by the united states House of Representatives, which in 2019 voted overwhelmingly to recognized the mass killings as a genocide.
A Biden official told reporters that the decision to utilize the term formally as the administration turned its focus to human rights.
In 1981, then-President Ronald Reagan described the "Armenian genocide" in a proclamation on the Holocaust, but others have shied from using the word since.
The administration of Mr Biden's immediate predecessor Donald Trump said it did not consider the killings a genocide. Mr Trump instead called it "one of the worst mass atrocities of the 20th Century".
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said Mr Biden's words had "honored the memory" of those who had died, adding in a tweet: "THE UNITED STATES has once again demonstrated its unwavering commitment to protecting human rights and universal values."
But the Turkish foreign ministry responded angrily, saying in a statement they "reject and denounce in the strongest terms the statement", saying it had been "made beneath the pressure of radical Armenian circles and anti-Turkey groups".
It warned the move would "open a deep wound that undermines our mutual trust and friendship".
A further deterioration of relations between your two countries could be the most significant outcome of Mr Biden's statement, which is largely symbolic and includes no additional sanctions.
