Editor's note: Andrew Korybko is a Moscow-based American political analyst. The article reflects the author's views and not necessarily those of CGTN.

CNN reported that Joe Biden became the first U.S. president to officially recognize the massacre of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire as a genocide.

Some other countries have already done so, but the U.S. had hitherto pushed back against intense pressure from the powerful Armenian lobby and certain members of the activist community to follow suit due to concerns that this would adversely affect its strategic partnership with Turkey. Ankara's position is that those events don't constitute genocide, were a multi-sided tragedy and should only be discussed among historians.

It's extremely unlikely that President Biden plans to reverse American policy just because he personally feels that it's the right thing to do. The U.S. never operates on that premise but rather exploits emotional arguments to disguise its pursuit of political objectives. A perfect case in point is its tendency to launch or threaten to launch so-called humanitarian interventions to stop alleged "genocides" across the world. Quite similarly, recognizing that World War I-era tragedy as genocide is intended to advance other political objectives.

Domestically, President Biden might want to repay his powerful Armenian supporters in the Democrat stronghold of California for backing his election. Some influential Democrats, such as Adam Schiff of Russiagate infamy, are strong supporters of this community. Schiff has received an A+ on his "report card" issued by the Armenian National Committee of America for backing almost all of their causes. There might also be a more Machiavellian dimension as well since some misportray those historical events as being driven by Muslim hatred against Christians, which aligns with the views of President Biden's right-wing opponents.

In other words, President Biden would be simultaneously appealing to both liberal and right-wing voters, albeit from different angles. The former would be thankful that they finally succeeded in gaining official recognition from the U.S. federal government on this issue. Meanwhile, the latter might reconsider some of their resistance to the Democrat leader since he proverbially threw them a bone by winking at their misinterpretation of that historical tragedy. That said, the real driving force is arguably the intent to worsen bilateral relations with Turkey as punishment for its leadership's increasingly independent policies in recent years.

Turkish President Erdogan has repeatedly defied American diktats by constructing the Turkish Stream gas pipeline with Russia, cooperating with Moscow on nuclear energy, purchasing the S-400 air defense systems from it and closely coordinating their military moves in Syria. He also condemned the U.S. for arming Syrian Kurdish groups Ankara regards as terrorists. Not only that, but Turkey has also moved closer to both China and Iran, two of the countries the U.S. also dislikes. From an American strategic perspective, President Erdogan's increasingly independent policies are completely unacceptable for a NATO ally.

There's little doubt that American-Turkish ties will enter a new and unpredictable era upon President Biden's reported recognition of that World War I-era tragedy as genocide. The U.S. leader will be crossing the political Rubicon by taking bilateral relations to a place where they've never been before and which his predecessors did their utmost to avoid.

This observation speaks to the U.S.'s changing strategic calculus vis-a-vis Turkey, whereby its policymakers seem to have accepted that relations will never be the same after President Erdogan's recent moves that were arguably provoked in response to the U.S. arming Syrian Kurdish groups.

The U.S. has plenty of other options for recalibrating its relations with Turkey than politically exploiting a historical tragedy for current gain. Its reported course of action sets a dangerous precedent which suggests that any historical tragedy can now be revived and subsequently politicized for strategic purposes.

It is morally wrong and objectifies victims by turning them into political pawns for a country halfway across the world a century after their tragedy transpired. Historical issues should always be left to historians, not politicians. It can only be hoped that President Biden's planned move doesn't open Pandora's Box.

(If you want to contribute and have specific expertise, please contact us at opinions@cgtn.com.)