By Harut Sassounian,

For the first time since the Genocide of 1915, the US Senate adopted a Resolution unanimously on December 12, 2019, recognizing the Armenian Genocide, after it was blocked for three consecutive weeks by different Republican Senators at the request of the White House. Since then, I have received countless phone calls and emails from Armenians asking me if this Resolution, along with its companion Resolution adopted overwhelmingly by the House of Representatives on October 29, 2019, will now go to Pres. Donald Trump for his signature.

I have written about this subject many times before, but it bears repeating that these two Resolutions are “stand alone” Resolutions, which means that they do not go to the White House and the President is not requested to sign them. This is the end of the road for these two Resolutions. If they were submitted to the two Houses of Congress as a “Joint Resolution,” they would then have been submitted to the President for his signature.

Nevertheless, regardless of the type of Resolution, if Pres. Trump so wishes, he can use the term “Armenian Genocide” in his annual statement on April 24, 2020.

Even though the October 29, 2019 recognition of the Armenian Genocide by the House of Representatives was the third time the House has passed such a Resolution, the December 12, 2019 Senate Resolution is historic since it is the first time since 1915 that the US Senate has adopted such a Resolution using the term Armenian Genocide. Furthermore, these two “stand alone” resolutions do not have the force of law, therefore, no legal consequence. They are simply considered the “Sense of Congress.”

Nevertheless, the adoption of these two Resolutions and their international media coverage angered the Turkish government. Several Turkish officials issued statements condemning the US Congress and threatening to expel the US troops from two air bases in Turkey! Turkish officials also tried to minimize the importance of these Resolutions by stating that they have “no value at all.” The Turkish government went as far as compelling its Parliament to issue a resolution condemning the US Senate for recognizing the Armenian Genocide. The Turkish government also summoned US Ambassador in Ankara David Satterfield, telling him that the Armenian Genocide Resolution would disrupt US-Turkish relations, while claiming that the Resolution has “no value at all.” Why then has the Turkish government spent millions of dollars for years on lobbyists trying to block the Resolution in Congress? How can a “worthless” Resolution disrupt US-Turkish relations and why would Turkey threaten to expel the US from the Turkish air bases?

Just as offensive are the attacks on the Senate Resolution by Azerbaijan’s officials. “The adoption of the resolution … is an attempt to falsification of historical facts and its use as a means of political pressure,” stated Leyla Abdullayeva, Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman. The Resolution “serves only the dirty purposes of the Armenian lobby circles,” she added. Armenia’s officials should react sharply by condemning Azerbaijan’s denialist statement which makes Azerbaijan an accomplice to the crime of Genocide after the fact. As a punishment, Armenia should declare that it is temporarily freezing all negotiations with Azerbaijan on Artsakh.

While it was expected that the Turkish government would lash back at the Armenian Genocide Resolutions, we are chagrined that the newly-elected Armenian Patriarch of Turkey, Sahak Mashalian, gave a lengthy interview to the Turkish newspaper Sabah, calling the Senate Resolution “not very moral.” While it is understandable that Armenians in Turkey are hostages deprived of their basic human rights, nevertheless there was no reason for the Patriarch, who was elected just one day before the adoption of the Senate Resolution, to go to such great lengths to parrot the Turkish government’s denialist propaganda! He not only condemned the US Senate, but said such offensive things as calling for a historical commission to study if a genocide had taken place, falsely claiming that some Armenians sided with Russian troops in attacking the Ottoman forces, accusing Armenians and Turks of massacring each other, urging Armenians and Turks to find a mutual solution without the interference of “third parties,” and supporting the adoption of the infamous Armenia-Turkey Protocols by both countries. All of these are arguments advanced by the Turkish government. Patriarch Mashalian stated at the end of his interview that “I am not a politician; there is a political dimension to this [issue].” He should have refused to talk to Sabah, stating simply that he is a spiritual leader and does not wish to engage himself in political matters.

Regarding the Patriarch’s suggestion that third countries should not involve themselves in the Armenian Genocide issue, he is completely wrong! If it weren’t for the Diaspora’s lobbying efforts for the recognition of the Armenian Genocide, this issue would have been forgotten by the world long ago! Rather than taking the side of the denialists and liars, Patriarch Mashalian should have worked tirelessly to establish the truth inside Turkey. This is the least one can expect from a man of God! Finally, even though the Patriarch is parroting the Turkish denialist talking points, we are not sure that the Turkish government has actually pressured him to give the interview to Sabah. He may have done it on his own to score points with the Turkish government, expecting that Ankara will shortly approve his election as Patriarch. “No one in this congregation would want to vote for a patriarch without approval from the state,” Mashalian told Sabah. The Patriarch is scheduled to meet with Turkish President Erdogan this week!

Since Catholicos Karekin II and Aram Catholicos rushed to congratulate the newly-elected Patriarch of Turkey, I wonder if after Mashalian’s cowardly statements to Sabah, the two Catholicoi would retract their congratulations and denounce the Armenian Patriarch’s denialist statements!

Armenian government officials, including the President, Prime Minister, and Foreign Minister issued statements thanking the US Congress and Armenian Americans for their support of the Genocide Resolution. While Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated that the adoption of the Resolution would reduce the Turkish threat to Armenia’s security, he regrettably added that he supports the normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations “without preconditions.” If the recognition of the Genocide defends Armenia’s security, why would the Prime Minister say that “for us recognition of the Armenian Genocide is not on the agenda of our relations with Turkey?”

In terms of next steps, it is high time that the Armenian government apply to the World Court (International Court of Justice) demanding from Turkey everything that Armenians lost as a result of the Genocide. These are:

1) Pay monetary compensation for the 1.5 million victims of the Armenian Genocide;

2) Return to victims’ heirs all personal properties, such as houses, farms, bank accounts and valuable items in bank safe deposit boxes;

3) Restore churches, monasteries, schools and cemeteries to the Armenian community in Turkey;

4) Liberate and unite Western Armenia with the Republic of Armenia.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has announced that in response to the US Senate’s recognition of the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire in 1915, the Turkish Parliament may adopt a resolution on the genocide of Native Americans during American colonization, RIA Novosti reports.

“We have opened more than a million documents on the events of 1915; come and study [them],”Erdogan said on A Haber TV. “We are talking about documents held in our hands. We must also take action against you by such decisions of our parliament; and we will. How can we keep silent about Native Americans when talking about America? This is a shameful chapter of the US.”

On December 12, the US Senate unanimously adopted Resolution 150 recognizing and condemning Armenian Genocide. Earlier, such a resolution was passed also by the US House of Representatives.

The US Senate’s decision to recognize the Armenian Genocide has a historic value for both the Turks and Armenians, Dr. Taner Akcam, a Turkish-German historian and a genocide scholar, says in a Facebook post, praising the move by the US legislators.

″The Senate decision is a historic one and today a historic day, not only for Armenians but also for people of Turkey and also for all those who are fighting for truth and justice,″ reads his public message.

Noting that the cause for historical justice received backing by both houses of the US Congress, the historian highlights also its legal aspect – regardless of President Donald Trump’s future attitudes (his move to use ‘genocide’ in official addresses). ″The recognition of Genocide by the United States is different from other countries’ recognition. We would expect successive criminal cases in US courts to be a real trouble to Turkey. We’ll be waiting to see Turkey’s reaction,″ Mr Akcam adds.

By Sarah Parvini

For three generations, Sophia Armen’s family has fought for recognition of the massacre that drove their ancestors to the United States.

A community organizer, Armen grew up attending rallies that advocated for U.S. acknowledgment of the 1915-to-1923 Armenian genocide carried out by Turkey’s Ottoman Empire — violence her great-grandparents survived.

As a child she frequented recognition events in Los Angeles with her family, where she would hold up signs and help gather signatures for petitions. In high school, she and her friends sent letters to their representatives with pictures of their families. In college, she organized events with other communities through the Armenian Student Assn.

So when the time came this year to once again press Congress to formally recognize the epic slaughter — a move the legislative branch repeatedly had shied from making — the 28-year-old was ready to push. The outcome caught some by surprise. Stirred by bipartisan anger at Turkey’s role in Syria’s ongoing civil war, the House on Oct. 29 voted 405-to-11 to designate the killing of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians as genocide. But the Senate resolution never came to a vote.

Picking at a tray of manti at an Armenian shop in Tujunga one recent afternoon, Armen lamented that many still see the fight for recognition as a passing annual event that only affects a small ethnic enclave in Glendale.

“This only gets attention once a year, on April 24, but it is honestly an everyday thing we are always working on,” she said.

Indeed, in Southern California, home to the largest Armenian community in the U.S., many in the diaspora say that the fight for recognition of the genocide — though not the sole unifying force — binds Armenians across the globe because so much of the community was formed by those who escaped the violence.

Community members in California are at once disappointed that they hit another wall in receiving recognition from both chambers of Congress, and heartened by a partial victory they attribute to a decades-long battle fought through dedicated activism — protests in the streets of Los Angeles, calls to politicians and grass-roots organizing.

But celebration of the House victory, which is not legally binding, was quickly tempered. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) blocked a path to recognition in the Senate last month. Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.) blocked another resolution that week.

To Armen, it felt that just as the community was making progress, it was being pushed back.

“But I have hope, and the hope always lies with the resilience and commitment of our people,” said Armen, a phD student in ethnic studies at UC San Diego. “The House resolution was a triumph of the legacies of generations who refused to give up.”

An estimated 200,000 Armenians live in Los Angeles County, and each year thousands of people march throughout the streets of Los Angeles demanding that the killings be officially recognized as a genocide.

In 2015, city officials designated Hollywood Boulevard and Western Avenue in Little Armenia as Armenian Genocide Memorial Square. In 2016, Glendale Unified became the first school district in the country to establish a day in remembrance of the genocide.

Armen’s own last name carries an echo of the genocide. Her great-grandfather’s first name was Armen. As a child, he witnessed Turkish soldiers killing his family and was left to wander through Turkey alone. When he was picked up by American missionaries, they anglicized his name, calling him Albert Armen.

“This might seem overblown to Western audiences, but for a community that has faced ongoing issues of erasure — things like our family name, our connection to land, our connection to culture — it is an every day existential crisis,” she said.

The push for recognition of the genocide began in earnest in the 1980s, when the children of survivors established themselves in the U.S. Armenian Americans grew more politically active, contributing to political campaigns and organizing around the issue.

The survivors didn’t have political, financial, or organizational power, said Syuzanna Petrosyan, associate director of USC’s Institute of Armenian Studies. When the second generation and their children established themselves in the U.S., they felt “secure enough to advocate for what they saw as a domestic issue for them.”

“And in fact, for the U.S., this is a domestic issue as much as it is a foreign policy issue,” she said.

Nora Hovsepian was 10 years old when she learned that her grandmother survived the genocide.

She remembers sitting in her family’s Detroit home, her grandmother sobbing as she told her that as a 9-year-old she watched as Turkish soldiers axed her father, grandfather and uncle to death in front of her eyes. That day in 1915, she said, the women gathered the children, said a prayer and threw themselves into the river on the outskirts of town. Hovsepian’s grandmother survived by clutching a branch in the fast-moving waters. She was rescued by a Kurdish family.

“I think it was literally the first time she had spoken about it,” said Hovsepian, chair of the Armenian National Committee of America’s Western region. “She said, ‘I need to tell you. You’re the future. You need to carry this with you and get justice for our people.’ At the time, they were very lofty words; I felt the burden throughout my life.”

That conversation started Hovsepian on the path toward activism. Now 56, she has dedicated her adult life to advocating for justice for the Armenian genocide.

“To get validation like that is very liberating,” she said of this fall’s congressional action. “I don’t think the failure to make it through the Senate should dilute the victory that was obtained in the House.”

Most states, including California, and several countries have recognized the genocide. Historians have characterized what happened as a precursor of — and even a model for — genocides that followed, including the Holocaust.

“When you don’t recognize and you don’t repair the damages, whatever that may be, you build a foundation for a cycle to take place, and for people to feel empowered and repeat things from the past,” said Shant Shekherdimian, a pediatric surgeon in L.A.

Although he was frustrated by what happened in Congress, Shekherdimian said he will continue to fight year-round for Armenian interests in the U.S. and work with international programs that help people in the Republic of Armenia.

“I think there should be many other days where I spend as much time and effort in contributing to these issues than that one day on April 24, and I feel strongly about instilling that in my children,” the 40-year-old said. “It’s not about being active on April 24 and passive on the other 364 days.”

While recognition from the U.S. government is important, activists say it is only part of the community’s fight. Some have argued the case for obtaining reparations from Turkey, a shift that’s come as many survivors have died and their children have taken up the cause.

Armenians around the world hold deeds to homes and other properties in Turkey that they argue were stolen from them during the genocide. U.S. recognition of the genocide, some argue, would help survivors and their families to go after what they lost by adding pressure to the Turkish government to pay reparations.

“It’s more than ‘Yay, it passed’ or ‘No, it didn’t.’ It’s important that countries around the world recognize injustice,” said Razmig Sarkissian, a student at Southwestern Law School. “If you don’t, it emboldens other perpetrators to do the same thing. People think they can still get away with it. That reckoning with the past is really important.”

Sarah Parvini covers California’s demographics and diverse communities for the Los Angeles Times’ Metro desk.