How Leaders Grapple with Armenian Genocide

Turkey furiously rejects the mass killings of Armenians between 1915 and 1917 as genocide, although it does acknowledge many were massacred.

With US President Joe Biden expected to formally recognise it as genocide on Sunday we look at how other countries have handled the painful issue.

- Genocide or massacres? -

It is estimated that as many as 1.5 million Armenians were killed during World War I by Ottoman troops or irregulars.

Turkey -- which emerged from the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in 1920 -- admits that 300,000 Armenians may have died in civil war and famine.

But it denies there was genocide.

Large numbers of Armenians had already been massacred between 1894 and 1896 under Sultan Abdul Hamid II, with some saying as many as 300,000 died. 

Turkey says the Armenians collaborated with the Russian enemy during World War I, and that tens of thousands of Turks were killed at their hands.

On April 24, 1915 thousands of Armenians suspected of being hostile to Ottoman rule were rounded up.

The Armenian population of Anatolia and Cilicia was then deported into the Mesopotamian desert "for reasons of internal security". 

A large number died on the way or in detention camps. Many were shot, burned alive, drowned, poisoned or fell victim to disease, according to foreign diplomats and intelligence services at the time.

Turkey's defeat in the war led to the creation of a short-lived independent Armenian state in 1918. 

- Growing recognition -

Armenians have long sought international recognition of the events as genocide, defined in a 1948 UN convention as acts "committed with intent to destroy, in whole or part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group."

In 1965 Uruguay became the first country to do so. The European Parliament recognised the killings as genocide in 1987 and France was the first major European country to apply the term in 2001.

Parliaments in nearly 30 countries have since passed laws, resolutions or motions recognising genocide. 

In some cases, however, only one chamber has passed a vote or it has been defined as non-binding, allowing the government to keep some distance. 

These include Russia, Germany, Brazil, Sweden, Argentina, Austria, Lebanon and The Netherlands.

Some countries go even further and punish genocide denial, such as Cyprus, Slovakia and Switzerland.

However, the European Court of Human Rights ruled in 2015 that Switzerland's 2007 conviction of a Turkish politician for calling the genocide a "great international lie" was an infringement of the right to free speech.

- Pope speaks out -

On the 100th anniversary of the killings in 2015, Pope Francis described them as "the first genocide of the 20th century".

He was the first pontiff to speak out so clearly on the issue.

Germany's lower house recognised the killings as genocide a year later, although the government said the vote was not legally binding.

In February 2021 the Dutch parliament passed a motion urging the government to recognise the killings as genocide.

- Biden urged to be bold -

In 2019 the US Congress recognised the killings as genocide in a symbolic vote. 

Former president Barack Obama had promised recognition but never did for fear of alienating Turkey, NATO's second largest military power after the US.

Shortly after his arrival in the White House, more than 100 Congress members pressed Joe Biden to make good on a campaign promise to formally recognise the genocide.