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U.S. Senate Unanimously Recognizes Armenian Genocide


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#21 Yervant1

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Posted 14 December 2019 - 08:03 AM

TIME Magazine
Dec  12 2019
 
 
 
Senate Approves Resolution Affirming Turkey Is Responsible for Century-Old Armenian Genocide
 
BY MATTHEW DALY / AP 4:11 PM EST
 
(WASHINGTON) — On its fourth try, the Senate has approved a resolution that recognizes the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks a century ago as genocide.
 
The resolution had been blocked three times at the request of the White House, but won unanimous approval Thursday.
 
Co-sponsored by Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey and Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, the nonbinding resolution affirms that the genocide occurred and that Turkey is responsible.
 
“I say to my friends and colleagues that genocide is genocide,” Menendez said on the Senate floor. “Senators in this body should have the simple courage to say it plainly, say it clearly, and say it without reservation.”
 
Menendez and Cruz had tried three times to bring up the resolution using a procedural maneuver that would allow approval on a voice vote, a way to avoid lengthy floor debate. Each time, a Republican senator objected, citing White House disapproval.
 
North Dakota Sen. Kevin Cramer, who objected to the measure last week, said he agreed to do so at the White House request because the vote would have occurred around the time of a NATO summit where President Donald Trump and other leaders gathered in London. Turkey is a NATO member.
 
The House passed an identical resolution overwhelmingly in October in what was widely seen as a rebuke to Turkey in the wake of its invasion of northern Syria. Turkey has lobbied for years against U.S. recognition of the killings of Ottoman Armenians as genocide, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said last month that the House vote had “hurt deeply the Turkish nation” and had “a potential of casting a deep shadow over our bilateral relations.”
 
Activist groups cheered the vote as long overdue. “The president ran out of people he could turn to to enforce Erdogan’s veto,” said Aram Hamparian, executive director of the Armenian National Committee of America.
  
Turkey’s decades-long opposition to the resolution was “the longest-lasting veto over U.S. foreign policy” by a foreign power in American history, Hamparian said.
 
Historians estimate that up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed around World War I, and many scholars see it as the 20th century’s first genocide. Turkey disputes the description, saying the toll has been inflated and those killed were victims of a civil war.
 
Instead of a resolution affirming the genocide, Turkey has called for a joint committee of historians to investigate the slayings. “The decision makers in an incident that took place about 104 years ago should not be politicians, but historians,” Erdogan said during a White House meeting with Trump on Nov. 13.
 
Senate supporters got a big boost Thursday when reality TV star Kim Kardashian West took to social media to urge approval. “Please call your Senators NOW and urge them to vote YES on the #ArmenianGenocide resolution,” she told her 153 million followers on Instagram. “Denial is the final stage of genocide,” she added.
 
 
 
 
 


#22 Yervant1

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Posted 14 December 2019 - 08:05 AM

Deutsche Welle, Germany
Dec 12 2019
 
 
Turkey summons US ambassador over resolution on Armenia genocide
 
 
 
The US ambassador to Turkey has been summoned over a US Senate resolution calling the killing of Armenians during WWI a "genocide." Turkey has warned that the resolution would negatively impact relations with the US.
 
Turkey's Foreign Ministry summoned the US ambassador to Ankara on Friday, a day after US lawmakers passed a resolution recognizing the mass killings of up to 1.5 million Armenians during World War I as genocide.
 
The US Senate's unanimous decision on Thursday followed the lower House of Representatives' move to back the resolution in October. The historic US policy will "commemorate the Armenian Genocide through official recognition and remembrance."
 
The policy, which is not legally binding, will also "reject efforts to enlist, engage, or otherwise associate the United States government with denial of the Armenian Genocide or any other genocide."
 
Historians estimate that up to 1.5 million people from the Armenian Christian minority were killed between 1915 and 1917
 
'Victory of justice'
 
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan hailed US lawmakers' decision on Thursday as a "victory of justice and truth."
 
"On behalf of the Armenian people, I express gratitude to the US Congress," he wrote on Twitter, adding that the resolution was a "courageous step towards the prevention of genocides in future."
 
Legislatures in Germany, France and other European countries have also recognized the massacre of Armenians between 1915 and 1917 as genocide.
 
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has rejected the term genocide to describe the mass killings of Armenians during and in the immediate aftermath of World War I
 
'Damaging Turkish-American ties'
 
Turkey has accused the US of politicizing history and warned the decision would affect bilateral relations.
 
"The behavior of some members of the US Congress is damaging the Turkish-American ties," Turkey's presidential communication director Fahrettin Altun said on Twitter.
 
"We condemn and reject this decision of the US Senate," Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay tweeted on Friday.
 
Denying genocide
 
Although the Turkish government acknowledges that many Armenians were killed by Ottoman soldiers, it outright rejects the term genocide.
 
Ankara argues that the Armenian death toll was much lower than reported, and that people on both sides died as a result of wartime unrest.
 
Historians have contested those assumptions by documenting how Ottoman soldiers committed massacres and forced marches that formed part of the Ottoman Empire's mass deportation of Armenians were instead designed to kill them during the journey.
 
Modern Turkey emerged in 1923 after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, and the events leading up to that point are considered integral to the country's national identity.
 


#23 Yervant1

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Posted 14 December 2019 - 08:12 AM

Panorama, Armenia
Dec 13 2019
 
 
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Society 12:45 13/12/2019Region
Turkish historian hails ‘historic’ Senate vote on Armenian Genocide resolution

Prominent Turkish historian, expert in genocide studies Taner Akcam has lauded the US Senate’s move to pass the Armenian Genocide resolution as ‘historic’.

“This is a historic day not only for Armenians, but also for Turks and all those who fight for truth and justice,” the historian said in a Facebook post on Thursday after the Senate voted unanimously to pass the resolution recognizing the Ottoman Empire’s mass killing of Armenians a century ago as genocide.

He stressed two of the three ‘pillars of the US government’ have already recognized the Armenian Genocide. “Even if Trump does not use the word ‘genocide’, we can now state that the United States has legally recognized the Genocide,” he wrote.

https://www.panorama...enocide/2210755


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#24 gamavor

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Posted 16 December 2019 - 02:14 PM

It is quite remarkable that even the assholes voted "yeah" for the resolution.

#25 MosJan

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Posted 18 December 2019 - 12:17 PM

https://www.bbc.com/...Ec8ZHCr-MzkQEHg

 

Trump says Armenia massacres were not genocide, directly contradicting Congress






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