Turkish leader says Biden’s genocide comment based ‘on lies’

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has criticized U.S. President Joe Biden for again characterizing the deaths of 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman Empire forces as a “genocide.” The Turkish leader said Monday the U.S. leader’s statement was “based on lies and false information.” Historians widely view the massacres, deportations and forces marches that began in 1915 in Ottoman Turkey as a genocide. Turkey vehemently rejects the label, conceding that many died in that era, but insisting that the death toll is inflated, that the deaths resulted from civil unrest and that Ottoman Muslims also died.  Erdogan challenged Biden to “learn the history” and said such statements were “provoking enmity” between the Turkish and Armenian people.