House Passes overwhelmingly votes t Resolution Recognizing Armenian Genocide

The House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to formally recognize and denounce the Armenian genocide as a matter of US foreign policy, a symbol of Armenian expatriates made possible by a new stream of bipartisan anger in Turkey.

The House of Representatives, dominated by Democrats, voted 405 to 11 on the resolution, which affirms that US policy, which considers the killing of 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 1923 genocide.

The US House of Representatives, overwhelmingly approved a law to impose sanctions on Turkey for its attack in northern Syria.

Many countries and nearly all US states officially recognize the killings as genocide. But the US Congress has resisted pressure in recent years by activists out of a desire not to inflame tensions with a Nato ally. Support for a resolution grew, particularly among Democrats, after Trump enabled the Turkish offensive against the Kurdish groups.

The US had previously allied with Syrian Kurdish forces against militants of the Islamic State group. The Turkish offensive left scores of Kurdish fighters and civilians dead and displaced hundreds of thousands more.