Authors: Kevin Lamarque and Trevor Hunnicutt
YEREVAN, Feb 10 (Reuters) – The White House on Tuesday deleted a social media post from Vice President J.D. Vance’s account commemorating the massacre of Armenians as a “genocide,” saying the message contradicted U.S. ally Turkey’s position on the matter and was posted in error.
Vance is on a two-day visit to Armenia, the first visit by a U.S. vice president to the South Caucasus republic, during which he visited the Zizenakabod Armenian Genocide Memorial in Yerevan.
Vance and his wife Usha participated in a ceremony at the site where wreaths of carnations, chrysanthemums and roses were laid to commemorate the 1.5 million Armenians who lost their lives in the final years of the Turkish-led Ottoman Empire.
Vance’s official account on X later described the visit as “commemorating the victims of the 1915 Armenian Genocide.”
After the post was deleted, a Vance aide who spoke on condition of anonymity said the information was posted in error by a staffer who was not part of the traveling delegation.
“This is a staff-managed account primarily used to share photos and videos of the vice president’s activities,” a spokesman for Vance said, adding that his own remarks to reporters best illustrate his point. Vance did not use the word “genocide” in these remarks.
Trump’s relationship with Türkiye
Turkey acknowledges that many Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire were killed in clashes with Ottoman forces during World War I, but disputes those figures and denies that the killings were systematically orchestrated and amounted to genocide.
Although both the U.S. Congress and Trump’s predecessor, Joe Biden, have recognized the 1915 massacre as a genocide, Trump avoided that assertion in his statements about the Holocaust last year.
Türkiye is a U.S. NATO ally and President Tayyip Erdogan maintains close ties with President Donald Trump, including supporting U.S. diplomatic initiatives in Gaza.
Türkiye’s foreign ministry did not respond to a request for comment.
The White House said there were “currently no changes in policy” since Trump’s 2025 statement on the historic event, which did not include the word “genocide.”
Asked if there were broader problems with the White House’s social media protocols, spokesperson Carolyn Leavitt said “no.”
Last week, the White House defended and then removed a post on Trump’s “Truth Society” account that included racist remarks describing former President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama as apes.
Trump later told reporters that he had not seen the entire video before White House aides posted it to his account.
In Armenia, Vance signed an agreement with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan that could pave the way for the United States to build a nuclear power plant there.
When asked by a reporter whether he visited the memorial to acknowledge the genocide, Vance said: “Obviously, it was a very horrific thing that happened over 100 years ago and it’s very, very important to their culture.
“So out of respect for the victims and also the government of Armenia, which is our very important partner in the region, and Prime Minister Pashinyan, I wanted to visit and pay my respects.”
Vance’s visit is aimed at promoting the Trump administration’s agreement with Armenia and Azerbaijan to achieve peace after nearly 40 years of war between the Caucasus rivals. Trump counts these diplomatic efforts as one of the major achievements of his tenure.
Vance traveled to Azerbaijan on Tuesday and signed a strategic partnership agreement covering economic and security cooperation as Washington seeks to expand its influence in a region where Russia was once a major power broker.
(Reporting by Kevin Lamarque in Yerevan, Armenia; Trevor Hunnicutt in Washington; Additional reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu in Ankara; Editing by Colleen Jenkins, Mark Heinrich and Edmund Klamann)