WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump鈥檚 administration said Tuesday it does not consider the mass killings of Armenians in 1915 to be genocide, seeking to placate Turkey which was angered that the US Congress recognized it as such.
鈥淭he position of the administration has not changed鈥� after the votes by Congress, State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said in a terse statement.
鈥淥ur views are reflected in the president鈥檚 definitive statement on this issue from last April,鈥� she said.
In the statement on the mass killings鈥� anniversary, Trump said the United States honored victims of 鈥渙ne of the worst mass atrocities of the 20th century鈥� but did not use the word genocide.
He instead encouraged Armenians and Turks to 鈥渁cknowledge and reckon with their painful history.鈥�
Armenia says that 1.5 million were killed in an effort to wipe out the Christian ethnic group in the waning days of the Ottoman Empire, the forerunner of modern-day Turkey.
Turkey puts the number far lower and adamantly rejects the term genocide, saying that Turks also died in what it considers fighting as part of First World War.
Turkey last week summoned the US ambassador to Ankara, David Satterfield, after the Senate followed the House of Representatives in recognizing the killings as genocide.
The Senate and House resolutions, both passed overwhelmingly, said it was the policy of the United States 鈥渢o commemorate the Armenian genocide through official recognition and remembrance.鈥�
But the so-called simple resolutions, unlike laws passed by Congress, do not have the force of law or require the president鈥檚 signature, meaning that the administration still has significant leeway in how to proceed.
Senator Robert Menendez, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee who spearheaded the resolution denounced Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo as being 鈥渙n the wrong side of history.鈥�
鈥淲hile not surprising, I am still deeply disappointed that both President Trump and Secretary Pompeo have yet to find their moral compass on this issue, and that they insist on allowing Turkey to have a veto on our own domestic decision,鈥� Menendez said.
鈥淚t鈥檚 time for this nation to recognize the truth. We must honor those who lost their lives in the Armenian genocide, remember how they died and pledge ourselves to change the way history remembers their deaths,鈥� he said.
Allies of Trump had initially tried to block the resolutions in Congress in hopes of preserving relations with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
During a meeting in Washington last month, Trump said he was a 鈥渂ig fan鈥� of Erdogan despite wide criticism in Congress over his human rights record and his incursion into Syria to fight Kurdish fighters formerly allied with Washington.
Trump has also held off on sanctions urged by Congress over the NATO ally鈥檚 purchase of Russia鈥檚 S-400 missile defense system.
Previous presidents have also struggled with how to address the events of 1915, with the Armenian-American community pushing hard for genocide recognition.
Barack Obama as a candidate promised to recognize the genocide but after his election did not use the word, instead saying that he stood by his pre-White House views.
Some 30 countries recognize the Armenian genocide, with several European nations criminalizing denial.