One word on this piece of paper has created headlines around the world and sparked celebrations and protests in a bunch of different countries. That word is genocide and it appears in this statement by US President Joe Biden about an event known to some as the Armenian Genocide. To understand why this one word on this piece of paper is causing so much controversy you need to know a bit about what happened back in World War 1 and what the word 'genocide' actually means.
Some quick background on Armenia first: it's a country of around 3 million in the mountainous Caucasus region between Asia and Europe. It's also one of the earliest Christian civilisations and over the years.. it's found itself under the control of different empires & rulers. During World War 1 Armenia was on the border of the Ottoman Empire & the Russian Empire who were on opposite sides of the war. As the war went on the Muslim-majority Ottoman Empire were worried that the Christian-majority Armenians living in their empire were secretly working for the also Christian-majority Russian Empire. While there were some cases of Armenians rebelling against the Ottomans the historical evidence overwhelmingly points to this resistance being very limited and not widely organised and certainly not directed by Moscow.
But in 1915, the military decided to act. Just a few years later the Ottoman Empire fell and what we now know as Turkey was created. Fast forward to today and most countries including Turkey agree that hundreds of thousands of Armenian civilians were killed. But the question of whether it was genocide... is at the center of the controversy today. Genocide is actually a pretty new word. It was coined in the 40s to describe the holocaust in World War 2. Eventually the UN introduced the Genocide Convention in the 50s which defined the act as "the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such". So, basically, the difference between killing a lot of people and genocide is that there needs to be a plan or intention to target and wipe out a certain group.
Armenians say in the few years after 1915 they were purposely targeted for extermination through things like starvation concentration camps and being forced out of the area and that all up around 1.5 million people died.
Turkey says there wasn't a deliberate plan to wipe out the Armenians during World War 1 and that many of the deaths were caused by the war or by Russian soldiers and that the number of deaths is closer to 300,000.
Turkish officials are confident the facts support their side of the story but historians and genocide experts aren't as convinced. But what would happen if everyone in the world today just suddently agreed it was a genocide? Well it's not really clear everyone in charge back then is obviously long dead by now so you can't really punish them. Although some of the leaders actually were charged and executed at the Istanbul trials in 1919 even though most had already fled. What Turkey is worried about is what people may start demanding. Many Armenians aren't just looking for recognition they're calling for justice and reparations.
So what does the rest of the world actually think right now. At the moment more than 30 countries have officially recognised what happened as genocide. Most others have been careful not to take a side. When it comes to international politics saying the wrong thing can have a huge impact on everything from trade to national security. Take Australia for example. Scott Morrison used the term back in 2011, but now that he's the PM he's changed his tune and uses words like enormous loss instead of genocide. All you need to do is look at Turkey's reaction to President Biden's statement... to understand why so many countries are cautious. Turkey's President Erdogan has asked Biden to reverse what he said and says he's risking damaging their important relationship as military allies and NATO members.
There's no doubt that the US siding with Armenia is a big deal. They're the biggest nation so far to use the term genocide and that alone could encourage other countries that may have been worried about Turkey's reaction to speak up. For now we'll just have to wait and see what kind of an impact this little piece of paper will have on the future of Turkey and Armenia.