While I am glad (on a personal level) that Mr Biden has chosen to recognise, name and acknowledge the Aremenian genocide - and I don't doubt Mr Biden's bona fides - I do wonder about the timing.
And while I have never doubted the influence, or reach, or sophistication of the Armenian diaspora, a couple of other factors may also be worth noting.
Bear in mind that US relations with Turkey are more tense than they have been for some time, - relations between Mr Biden and Mr Erdogan are thought to be quite cool - and recent purchases (on the part of Turkey, which is still a member of NATO, and has a large and well equipped military) of arms from Russia went down poorly in the US.
Of equal interest is the fact that Turkish arms exports (in the form of extraordinarily effective and very affordable drones) to Azerbaijan had a decisive effect (and impact) on the most recent conflict to break out between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
In marked contrast to the Armenian Azeribaijan conflict of the 1990s (where Armenia, supported by Russia, won the military conflict comprehensively, at the cost of subsequent political reliance on Russia), the brief conflict of 2020 (overshadowed by other conflicts, and Covid, and thus, little reported) resulted in a decisive defeat for Armenia, and a striking victory for Azerbaijan, the former armed with outdated Russian equipment, wheras the latter was equipped with modern Turkish matƩriel.
