Share :

Download PDF :

Responsible Statecraft (26 April 2021)

Graham E. Fuller

[...] [US President Joe] Biden’s official declaration and condemnation of the Armenian genocide now joins many similar Western condemnations. But this is the first public condemnation by Washington of an incident reaching into Turkey’s past. Unfortunately, the statement has much more to do with current U.S. foreign policy towards Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan than it does with any morality of the case. At this point, condemnation of the genocide is effectively being wielded as a tool of American foreign policy. [...]

The timing of Biden’s genocide declaration highlights what is part of a generic long-term problem of serious hypocrisy in U.S. foreign policy; it claims to be based on “moral values” or “human rights” or  “democratic values.” Yet these genuine values are primarily used instrumentally. They serve as weapons against countries Washington does not like but are almost never directed against regimes we do. The countries and leaders chosen for U.S. denunciation are invariably cherry-picked according to time, place and the political needs of the moment, rather than values. [...]

To read the full text of the article, please click: https://responsiblestatecraft.org/2021/04/26/bidens-opportunistic-timing-in-armenian-genocide-declaration/