Recognition of the Armenian genocide by the United States threatens with lawsuits against Turkey in American courts, said Leonid Slutsky, head of the Duma’s international affairs committee.
The US President Joe Biden on Saturday officially recognized the massacres of Armenians organized and committed in the early 20th century in the Ottoman Empire as genocide. In response, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said that he was deeply saddened by these “unfair words not based on history,” but at the same time expressed the opinion that his meeting with Biden on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Brussels in June would open a new page in bilateral relations.
“Recognition of the Armenian genocide threatens with numerous lawsuits against Turkey in American courts, and this is not safe for official Ankara”, – Slutsky said during an online briefing at the Rossiya Segodnya news agency.
He added that the “rebellious Ankara” is “an irritant for the American leadership”. He explained that cooperation with the Russian Federation, including the purchase of S-400 by Turkey, is also an irritant for the United States.
“Therefore, yes, this (S-400) is one of the options for the basis for Biden and the State Department to recognize the Armenian genocide”, – Slutsky said.
Deliveries of the latest Russian S-400 air defense systems, which caused a crisis in Turkey’s relations with the United States, began in mid-July 2019. Washington demanded to abandon the deal and purchase American Patriot systems in return, threatening to delay or even cancel the sale of the latest F-35 fighters to Turkey, as well as to impose sanctions in accordance with CAATSA (the law “On Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions”). Ankara refused to make concessions and continued negotiations on an additional batch of S-400s.