Trump administration tersely declines to recognize Armenian genocide despite unanimous Senate resolution

(Image credit: BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/Getty Images)

published 17 December 2019

The Trump administration would like to quickly reject Congress' latest unanimous decision.

Last week, the entire Senate voted to recognize the 1915 Armenian genocide, furthering a near-unanimous vote of approval by the House in October. But after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan seemed to threaten to bring up one of America's own atrocities in retaliation, the State Department declined to take up Congress' measure.

Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) had cosponsored the legislation, which recognized that "from 1915 to 1923, the Ottoman Empire carried out a force deportation of nearly 2 million Armenians, of whom 1.5 million were killed," Cruz said. The legislation had previously faced opposition from Republican senators who worried it would damage the U.S. relationship with Turkey, the present-day location of the Ottoman Empire. That became more likely when, speaking on a pro-government news channel Monday, Erdogan hinted he might officially recognize the genocide of Native Americans committed by European settlers. "Can we speak about America without mentioning [Native Americans]? It is a shameful moment in U.S. history," Erdogan said.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

On Tuesday, the Trump administration gave its unsurprising answer to Congress' resounding call. In a brief statement, a State Department spokesperson said "the position of the administration has not changed," and referred back to Trump's April statement which described "one of the worst mass atrocities of the 20th century" but did not use the word "genocide" — the exact same statement Trump gave two years earlier. Kathryn Krawczyk

Explore More

Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.

Subscribe to The Week

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox