A message posted Tuesday on Vice President JD Vance’s X account recognizing the Armenian genocide was later removed, prompting clarification from the White House that there has been no shift in U.S. policy following his participation in a wreath-laying ceremony in Armenia.

The now-deleted post said that Vance and his wife, Usha Vance, took part in the ceremony to commemorate the victims of the 1915 Armenian genocide. The wording stood in contrast to current Trump administration policy regarding the terminology used to describe the events.

For decades, Armenians have pressed governments around the world to formally recognize the mass killings carried out between 1915 and 1917 under the Ottoman Empire as genocide, maintaining that approximately 1.5 million Armenians were killed.

Turkey, which succeeded the Ottoman Empire, has consistently denied that the killings, arrests and forced deportations of Armenians during that period constitute genocide.

Successive U.S. administrations have generally refrained from officially labeling the events as “genocide,” citing the potential diplomatic fallout with Turkey, a strategic ally in the region. In 2021, President Joe Biden formally referred to the Ottoman Empire’s actions against Armenians as “genocide,” drawing sharp condemnation from Ankara.

A spokesperson for Vance said the post published Tuesday was the work of staff members who were not traveling as part of the official delegation.

The White House later issued a statement underscoring that there has been no change in longstanding policy, pointing to an earlier Armenian Remembrance Day message. Vance’s X account subsequently shared a revised, more measured post that included an image of the handwritten note he left in the guest book at the ceremony: “In solemn remembrance of the lives lost, we honor the resilience and enduring spirit of the Armenian people.”