Ottoman empire perpetrated genocide in Armenia; Turkey annoyed over

Washington/Ankara: The US Senate passed a bill unanimously, that killing of hundreds of thousands of Armenians by the Turkish Ottoman empire, at the beginning of the 20th century was nothing but a genocide. The Armenian government has said that this is a victory for the truth. This has strained the relations between the United States and Turkey further. The US Ambassador to Turkey was issued a summons in this matter.

The bill regarding the Armenian genocide was passed by the US Senate unanimously, on Thursday. Senators belonging to both republican and democrat parties endorsed that the Ottoman empire perpetrated genocide in Armenia, without any opposition.

Senator Bob Menendez said ‘Whatever happened with the Armenian population between 1915 and 1923 was nothing else but a genocide. There is no other word for this.’ It was senator Menendez who presented the bill in the Senate. The other members of the Senate also said that this was a historic decision.

Whereas, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan reacted, ‘Real homage has been paid to the hundred and fifty thousand people, who were killed in the first genocide of the 20th century. This is a clear message for the perpetrators of the genocide.’ But Turkey expressed annoyance over the decision of the US Senate.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu criticised that this was a political conspiracy against Turkey. Turkey has lashed out that it will be noted in the history that the US Congress took some irresponsible decisions against Turkey. Whereas, Turkish President Erdogan announced that this decision was not acceptable to Turkey. Armenian people had been killed during the Ottoman regime, but that was not a genocide. Turkey claims that the number of Armenians killed was not big.

During the first world war, Turkey had massacred nearly 150,000 Armenians. The Armenian government was demanding, for the last so many years, that the US Senate should declare that massacre as a genocide. But the United States ignored the request, given the friendly relations with Turkey.

But in October, the US House of Representatives passed the bill with a majority, stating that it was an Armenian genocide. The Democrat party made all possible efforts to get the bill passed in the Senate. But the Senate avoided passing the bill till President Erdogan was in the United States.

Meanwhile, since the last few months, Turkey has taken an aggressive stand against the United States. Turkish actions like the agreement to purchase S-400 from Russia, the campaign against the Syrian Kurds, threat to close the US military bases at Incirlik and Kuresik, have severely strained the relations between the United States and Turkey. In this scenario, the passing of this bill accepting that it was a genocide of Armenian people, can rot the situation further. A strong reaction is expected from Turkey over this.