Turkey says US Congress recognition of Armenian genocide puts US-Turkey ties at risk
Armenia PM hails genocide vote in US Congress as 'victory of justice'
Why it matters: The previous three attempts by Sens. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas) to pass the resolution were blocked by Republican senators at the request of the White House, which feared that its passage would infuriate the Turkish government during a tense period of U.S.-Turkey relations.
Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), David Perdue (R-Ga.) and Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) previously objected to the resolution, but indicated that they were not willing to do so again.
Mendendez, who has championed the cause since arriving in the Senate in 2006, became emotional on the Senate floor as he spoke following the passage of the resolution.
“By passing my Armenian Genocide resolution, the Senate finally stood up to confirm history: What happened from 1915 to 1923 was — most assuredly — genocide. There is no other word for it. There is no euphemism. There is no avoiding it. To overlook human suffering is not who we are as a people. It is not what we stand for as a nation. We are better than that, and our foreign policy should always reflect this."
— Bob Menendez
This formal recognition by the US Congress of the 1915-1917 murder of up to 1.5 million Armenians as genocide angered Turkey which insists the Armenians died as a result of World War I, not at the hands of the Ottoman Turks.
Armenians say the mass killings of their people from 1915 to 1917 amounted to genocide, a claim recognized by some 30 countries. Armenia PM hails genocide vote in US Congress as 'victory of justice'
“I salute the historic U.S. Congress vote recognising the Armenian Genocide,” Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said.
Turkey strongly denies the accusation of genocide and puts the death toll in the hundreds of thousands.
The US House of Representatives first passed the resolution on October 29 in a vote of 405-11, featuring strong bipartisan support.
Two weeks later Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan brought up the issue during his visit to the White House on November 13. Standing next to Trump, Erdogan warned that “some historical developments and allegations are being used in order to dynamite our reciprocal and bilateral relations.”
Allies in the international military alliance NATO, the US and Turkey are also currently at odds over Ankara’s decision to procure S-400 Russian defense systems.
Turkey said on Wednesday it would retaliate against any US sanctions over its purchase of the S-400 defenses.
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