More than a century after the atrocities committed by the Ottoman Empire against Armenian civilians, the United States might recognize the killings as a genocide, according to a report from The New York Times. President Biden is expected to the second U.S. President to refer to the killings as a genocide this weekend, according to multiple reports.

“This turning point decision is a stepping stone in the right direction for all of humanity to heal,” said Pateel Eulmessekian, the advisor of the Armenian Club at Hoover.

It is estimated that approximately 1.5 million Armenians were killed by the Ottoman Empire, starting on April 24, 1915. That was the day that the Ottoman Empire captured Armenian leaders in Istanbul in the beginning stages of the genocide. Turkey continues to deny that a genocide ever occurred. Turkey claims that the deaths were just part of World War I casualties.

In 2019 both the House and the Senate recognized the massacres as a genocide. Then-President Donald Trump referred to it as “mass atrocity.” Barack Obama, when he was a candidate for the presidency, called it a genocide, but not as president due to pressure from Turkey.

Ronald Reagan touched on the issue in 1981 when he was president. He said, “Like the genocide of the Armenians before it, and the genocide of the Cambodians which followed it and like too many other such persecutions of too many other peoples – the lessons of the Holocaust must never be forgotten.”

“It’s encouraging,” GUSD Board of Education member Greg Krikorian said. “We’ve lost so much and so much time has gone by. We’ve lost over two million Armenian brothers and sisters since the 1880s to today’s current crisis. It is a continuation of what Ronald Reagan did in 1981 in standing for the truth and justice. Reparations and returning Mt. Ararat to its rightful ownership is important, too.”