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    Categories: 2019

U.S. set to recognise Armenian genocide following Turkey’s Syria offensive

AHVAL News
Oct 24 2019
U.S. set to recognise Armenian genocide following Turkey's Syria offensive

The U.S. Senate is preparing to vote on the motion to formally recognise the mass killing of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire as genocide, at a time when U.S. lawmakers seek to rebuke Turkey over its Syria offensive, Yahoo News said on Thursday.

"As soon as next week, Democrats in the House of Representatives could ratify a measure recognizing the Armenian genocide, moving it out of committee and to the chamber floor, where it is likely to pass. The House Rules Committee is set to announce Thursday that it is going to take up the resolution next week, a final formal process before it can receive a vote," Yahoo News said.

Turkey denies that the killings were planned and coordinated by the Ottoman government, arguing that they, therefore, do not constitute a genocide. Ankara has also disputed the number of deaths, which it places far below a million, and says that there is not enough scholarly work has been done on primary sources to adequately discuss the events starting in 1915.

However, governments and parliaments of 29 countries, including Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Russia, have recognised the events of 1915 as genocide. 

Turkey on Oct. 9 launched an offensive in northeast Syria against the United State's Kurdish allies, which Ankara sees as affiliates of outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), following U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw from the region.

Trump has been facing severe criticism, levelled even by members of his own party, that slammed his decision to pull U.S. forces out of northeast Syria. After Turkish offensive, three sanctions draft bills introduced to the U.S. Congress would see tough sanctions imposed on Turkey over the Syria offensive, while Trump hit Ankara with sanctions, which he later lifted following a U.S.-brokered ceasefire agreement between Turkey and Kurdish forces.

"That leaves the House resolution as the most immediate means of rebuking Turkey at a time when tensions with the NATO ally are at a historic high," the news site said.

Emil Lazarian: “I should like to see any power of the world destroy this race, this small tribe of unimportant people, whose wars have all been fought and lost, whose structures have crumbled, literature is unread, music is unheard, and prayers are no more answered. Go ahead, destroy Armenia . See if you can do it. Send them into the desert without bread or water. Burn their homes and churches. Then see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again. For when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a New Armenia.” - WS