USA, double slap in the face of Turkey: yes to the sanctions and recognized the Armenian genocide

WASHINGTON – Double slap of the US Chamber in Ankara, two weeks after the visit of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to the White House: the deputies have approved in a bipartisan way almost unanimously a resolution that recognizes the Armenian genocide and another that asks the President Donald Trump to impose sanctions and other restrictions on Turkey and the leaders of that country for the offensive in northern Syria.
The reaction of Ankara is immediate, which "rejects" the resolution on the Armenian genocide, marking it as a decision "for internal use, devoid of any historical and legal basis"."It is an insignificant political step – said the head of diplomacy of Ankara Mevlut Cavusoglu – addressed only to the Armenian lobby and anti-Turkey groups". The Turkish Foreign Ministry also strongly condemned the resolution on sanctions, stressing that the decision is not in keeping with the NATO alliance between the two countries and the agreement between the US and Ankara on the truce in Syria, and warning Washington to take measures to avoid steps that further damage bilateral relations.

The US Chamber has formally recognized the "Armenian genocide" with an overwhelming majority (405 yes out of 435 votes, of which 11 against). The non-binding text calls for "commemorating the Armenian genocide" and "rejecting attempts to associate the American government with its denial", as well as educating about the affair. The approval was greeted with a long applause in the classroom. The Armenian genocide has been recognized by some thirty countries, including Italy. According to estimates, between 1.2 and 1.5 million Armenians were killed during the First World War by troops from the Ottoman Empire, at the time an ally of Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Kingdom. But Ankara rejects the term genocide by claiming that there were mutual massacres against the background of a civil war and a famine that made thousands of deaths on both sides.In April 2017, a few months after taking office in the White House, Donald Trump called the 2015 Armenian massacre "one of the worst mass atrocities of the 20th century", without using the term genocide. But it was enough to arouse the wrath of Turkey. Barack Obama, before being elected in 2008, had committed himself to recognizing the Armenian genocide but did not. The resolution on sanctions was approved with 403 yes and 11 no. Now the Senate must rule.

The double slap comes after Trump has withdrawn US troops from Syria abandoning the Kurdish allies to the Turkish offensive. Pressed by the Congress, the tycoon imposed some modest sanctions, revoking them as soon as the truce was announced. But Capitol Hill is still irritated, in a rare moment of bipartisan unity against the backdrop of the battle for impeachment.

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