Members of the US Senate on Thursday unanimously voted to recognize the Armenian genocide of 1915 by Ottoman empire troops and irregulars, a long-awaited development that marks a significant diplomatic defeat for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and a vote in defiance of attempts by US President Donald Trump to prevent the recognition.
Sen. Bob Menendez, one of the co-sponsors of the bill, fought back tears as he announced passage of the legislation on the Senate floor.
He said “…I am thankful that this resolution has passed at a time in which there are still survivors of the genocide [who] will be able to see that the Senate acknowledges what they went through.”.
The Senate resolution formally acknowledges the mass killing of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians between 1915 and 1922 as an act of genocide. Coming after a similar measure adopted in October by the US House of Representatives, it marks the culmination of decades of campaigning by Armenian-Americans, who called on the American president to follow Congress’s lead.