October 30, 2019 - 16:38 AMT
Erdoğan says U.S. Armenian Genocide recognition "has no value"

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Wednesday, October 30 condemned the U.S. House of Representatives’ recognition of the Armenian Genocide, calling it "an insult to the nation", Ahval reports.

The House vote on Tuesday coincided with the anniversary of the 1923 foundation of the Republic of Turkey on the ashes of the Ottoman Empire and comes amid anger in Congress over the Turkish offensive in northeast Syria that President Donald Trump facilitated by withdrawing U.S. troops from the area and ending support for Syrian Kurdish forces that fought Islamic State.

Erdoğan said a group of U.S. politicians who had been working for 20 years to push for the recognition of the Genocide had exploited the negative mood against Turkey.

“This step taken has no value. And we do not recognise it,” said the Turkish president. “We see such an accusation as the greatest insult made to our nation.”

Erdoğan said the Turkish parliament was working on a statement against the U.S. House of Representatives.

“A country whose history is filled with stains of genocide, slavery and exploitation has no right to say something or to lecture Turkey,” Erdoğan said.

Introduced by Rep. Adam Schiff, the resolution states that it is U.S. policy to (1) commemorate the Armenian Genocide, the killing of 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 1923; (2) reject efforts to associate the U.S. government with efforts to deny the existence of the Armenian Genocide or any genocide; and (3) encourage education and public understanding about the Armenian Genocide.

Mississippi remains as the last U.S. state to officially recognize the Armenian Genocide, the other 49 having already done so.

April 24, 1915 is the day when a group of Armenian intellectuals was rounded up and assassinated in Constantinople by the Ottoman government. On April 24, Armenians worldwide commemorated the 104th anniversary of the Genocide which continued until 1923. Some three dozen countries, hundreds of local government bodies and international organizations have so far recognized the killings of 1.5 million Armenians as Genocide. Turkey denies to this day.