WASHINGTON — The Biden administration is signaling that it will recognize the Armenian genocide. For some members of the Armenian community in New York, the news is being met with cautious optimism.

“We've been here before, we've been told before, and we've been disappointed before,” said Antranig Karageozian, Chairman of the Armenian National Committee of Albany. 

What You Need To Know

  • The New York Times and other outlets are reporting Biden could designate the systematic killings genocide in coming days

  • A century ago, in the midst of World War I, hundreds of thousands of Armenians were deported and massacred at the hands of the Ottoman Turks

  • U.S. presidents have used a host of words to describe the atrocities, but have shied away from the term genocide itself, fearful of upsetting Turkey, a NATO ally

The New York Times and other outlets are reporting Biden could make the designation in coming days. Saturday is Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day.

A century ago, in the midst of World War I, hundreds of thousands of Armenians were deported and massacred at the hands of the Ottoman Turks. Karageozian’s organization has long called for the U.S. to label the systematic killings genocide.

“My grandfather actually lost his first wife and two children in the massacres. They were burned alive in a church,” Karageozian said.

U.S. presidents have used a host of words to describe the atrocities, but have shied away from the term genocide itself, fearful of upsetting Turkey, a NATO ally. 

“The reason the U.S. has not done this before is Turkey has always threatened all sorts of things,” said Hope Harrison, a professor of history and international affairs at the George Washington University.

Harrison, who previously served as director of European and Eurasian Affairs at the National Security Council from 2000-2001, said Turkey has long been an important U.S. ally in the Middle East. 

Turkey’s leaders reject that the atrocities amounted to genocide. Using the term, which indicates the Ottoman Empire’s intent was to annihilate the Armenian population, could upend that U.S.-Turkey relationship.

Historically, she said, “the balance between sort of justice and realpolitik kept falling toward the realpolitik side of things.” If the Biden administration recognizes the deaths as genocide, she said, it would be a  “very big move.”

Other nations, including U.S. allies, have already labeled the killings genocide.

As for Armenian-Americans like Karageozian, he says that if Biden follows through, the declaration would amount to a step toward justice.

“This is embedded in every Armenian’s blood, and heart and soul that these atrocities happened,” he said. “We've lost our families and territories. The question becomes what would have happened if this genocide never occurred?”

The relationship between the Biden White House and Turkey is already shaky, especially compared with the Trump administration’s relationship with the country.

On the campaign trail, Biden called Turkey’s president an “autocrat,” and he pledged to label the killings a genocide.

In recent weeks, New York lawmakers have joined with the congressional colleagues in signing onto bipartisan letters to the to the president, urging him to use the term genocide. Those letters can be found here.