Senate recognizes Armenian genocide in latest black eye for Turkey

The Senate today recognized the Ottoman Empire’s massacre of more than 1 million mostly Christian Armenians as a genocide — the culmination of a week of punitive congressional measures against Turkey.

Sens. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., and Ted Cruz, R-Texas, got their Armenian genocide resolution unanimously passed today despite opposition from the White House. Menendez’s resolution is the fourth significant blow Ankara has faced on Capitol Hill this week alone, coming shortly after Congress advanced a Turkey sanctions bill and legislation that would lift the Cyprus arms embargo and more permanently ban the transfer of US F-35 fighter jets to the NATO ally.

Fearful that the resolution could obstruct President Donald Trump’s efforts to salvage the troubled US-Turkey alliance, the White House scrambled to find a new Republican ally willing to block the Armenian resolution today — but could not find anyone willing to take the political hit. Al-Monitor reported last week that the White House had managed to buy some time by recruiting a different Republican senator to block the resolution during each of Menendez’s three previous efforts to pass it on the floor.

“The Senate today joined the House in rejecting Ankara’s gag-rule against honest American remembrance of the Armenian genocide — overriding the largest, longest foreign veto over the US Congress in American history,” said Aram Hamparian, the executive director of the Armenian National Committee of America. “Today’s unanimous Senate action shines a spotlight on the president, who continues — against all reason — to enforce [President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s] veto against honest American remembrance of Turkey’s extermination and exile of millions of Christians.”