Erdogan to raise US recognition of Armenian Genocide during meeting with Biden
 Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said he and U.S. President Joe Biden should use Monday's meeting to move away from past problems, including a bitter dispute over Ankara's purchase of Russian S-400 missiles. Ahead of a trip to the NATO summit in Brussels on Monday, Erdogan said he expected an" unconditional approach " from Washington as he sat down with Biden for their first face-to-face meeting since last year's US election. He said he would also raise the issue of the White House's recognition of the 1915 mass killings of Armenians in the then-Ottoman Empire as "genocide," which infuriated Ankara, and the U.S. exclusion of Turkey from the F-35 fighter program. more detailed. The Turkish president, who relied on a close personal relationship with Biden's predecessor, Donald Trump, to smooth over past crises, has been frustrated by a more critical and distanced approach from the new US administration.Erdogan had to wait three months after Biden's inauguration for their first contact, an awkward phone call in April when the US president informed him of a plan to recognize the genocide. "We need to discuss first-hand the relationship between Turkey and the United States," Erdogan told reporters at Istanbul airport on Sunday. "There has been a lot of gossip inside and out, so we need to talk about how we can put these issues behind us, what we can do and what we will do. Turkey is not just a country, it is an allied country." "An ally country taking such a stance on an issue that has nothing to do with NATO, the issue of Armenians, has disturbed and upset us. It is not possible to go on without reminding (Biden of) this," Erdogan said. |
