Navy Times by Eldad Ben Aharon, Leiden University 3/6/2020
Explainer: Why it took 40 years to pass a bill acknowledging the Armenian genocide
Between 1914 and 1921, the Ottoman Empire carried out an extended campaign to expel or kill the Armenians living in Turkey and its border regions.
From massacres to death marches, 1.5 million of Turkey’s historic Armenian population was murdered.
Since 1923, Turkey has denied perpetrating what came to be called the Armenian genocide. It has pressured its allies to refrain from officially declaring the events a “genocide,†which the United Nations defines as acts committed with the “intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.â€
But in a milestone vote in late 2019, both the U.S. House and Senate defied that pressure and the weight of over 40 years of precedent.
They passed a bill declaring that the killing of 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Turks was, in fact, a genocide.
Since 1975, numerous efforts were made to pass an Armenian genocide bill. The decades-long struggle involving Turkey, Israel, Armenian-Americans, the American Jewish community and the U.S. government over the commemoration of the Armenian genocide resulted in failure to pass a bill every time – until 2019.
More:
https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-navy/2020/03/06/explainer-why-it-took-40-years-to-pass-a-bill-acknowledging-the-armenian-genocide/
