YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) — Armenia’s leader is praising President Joe Biden’s recognition of the deaths of 1.5 million Armenians under Ottoman Turkish rule as genocide, calling it “a powerful step.” Biden’s announcement Saturday and Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s response came as Armenians streamed to a hilltop memorial to lay flowers and mourn the victims. Saturday marked the anniversary of the 1915 rounding up of 250 Armenian intellectuals, regarded as the first step in the killings that lasted until 1923. Turkey vehemently rejects the genocide label, saying any deaths resulted from civil unrest. Biden’s statement brought an angry response from Turkey. But Pashinyan said it “reaffirms the supremacy of human rights and values in international relations.
