Trump Making Effort To Solve Issue Of US Lawmakers Recognizing Armenian Genocide - Erdogan

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 14th November, 2019) US President Donald Trump is making efforts to find a solution to the recognition by the US House of Representatives of the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire, Turkish leader Tayyip Erdogan said following talks with Trump in Washington.

The US House of Representatives voted on October 29 to recognize the Armenian Genocide by the Ottoman Empire in early the 20th century. The resolution passed with 405 representatives voting for and 11 against. Another vote on the same day levied an arms embargo on Turkey, passing 403-16.

"Trump is making efforts to find a solution to this issue based on national interests and with mutual respect. Those circles that are opposed to Trump are doing everything to ruin our relationship. This is the main reason that the resolution on the events of 1915 together with sanctions went through the House of Representatives," Erdogan told a Turkish pool reporters of Turkish broadcaster NTV aboard a plane returning from Washington.

He noted that he gave detailed information to Trump and senators about the Armenian issue and the events of 1915. "I told them that politicizing historical events is a big mistake," the Turkish leader added.

Republican Senator Lindsay Graham said Wednesday that he had blocked the adoption of the resolution in the upper house of Congress.

In the late 19th-early 20th centuries, Armenians found themselves an increasingly persecuted minority within the ailing Ottoman Empire. In 1915, according to a number of historians, more than 1.5 million Armenians were killed. The fact of the Armenian people's genocide in the Ottoman Empire was recognized by 23 states, as well as the European Parliament.

Turkey has traditionally rejected the accusations of Armenian genocide and is extremely sensitive to criticism on the issue. Ankara insists on the rejection of the term "genocide" in relation to the events of 1915. Turkey also calls for the creation of an international commission of historians to study the country's archival documents to develop an objective approach to the events of World War I.