Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on President Joe Biden to immediately reverse his declaration that 1915 massacres of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire constituted genocide, a move he said was upsetting and diminished bilateral ties, writes NBCNEWS.

Biden’s historic declaration on Saturday has infuriated its NATO ally Turkey, which has said the announcement had opened a “deep wound” in relations that have already been strained over a host of issues.

In his first comments since Biden’s statement, Erdogan said “the wrong step” would hinder ties and advised the United States to “look in the mirror”, adding Turkey still sought to establish “good neighborly” ties with Armenia.

“The U.S. President has made baseless, unjust and untrue remarks about the sad events that took place in our geography over a century ago”, - Erdogan said after a cabinet meeting, and repeated a call for Turkish and Armenian historians to form a joint commission to investigate the events.

“I hope the U.S. President will turn back from this wrong step as soon as possible”.