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US House of Representatives officially condemns massacres of Armenians as genocide

2019-10-30T00:55:44.026Z


The move is only symbolic, but should still develop force: the US House of Representatives now classifies the murders of the Armenians as a genocide. The angry reaction from Ankara came promptly.



The US House of Representatives has officially classified the massacres of Armenians during the First World War as genocide. The Congress Chamber passed a resolution on Tuesday with a clear majority of 405 to 11 votes. It is the first time that the US Congress has called the massacres of 1915-1917 a genocide.

Democratic House Chair Nancy Pelosi welcomed the adoption of the resolution. The point is to recall one of the worst atrocities of the 20th century: "The systematic murder of 1.5 million Armenian men, women and children by the Ottoman Empire."

Turkey, which rejects the term genocide, responded with anger to the passing of the resolution. The Turkish Foreign Ministry spoke of a "meaningless political move" and a "shameless decision aimed at the" Armenian lobby and anti-Turkey groups ".

At the same time, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu assumed that the move was to be understood as a response to the Turkish advance in Syria. Anyone in the US who believes they can "take revenge" in this way is mistaken, according to the minister on Twitter. In a second step, the House had in fact also demanded by a clear majority new sanctions against Ankara because of the course in Syria.

France and Germany have already positioned themselves

The decision, the Turks said, threatens relations between Turkey and the US in times of great risk to international and regional security. In the Republican-dominated Senate no such vote has been scheduled. Most recently, the Turkish military offensive against Kurds in northern Syria had heavily impacted relations between Ankara and Washington.

In 2001, France was the first major European country to classify the massacres of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire as genocide. The German Bundestag did so in June 2016, which triggered a serious diplomatic crisis with Turkey.

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2019-10-30

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