WASHINGTON – Senator Adam Schiff on Thursday blasted President Donald Trump for refusing to recognize the Armenian Genocide on its 110th anniversary.
Earlier in the day, the White House released its annual April 24 statement, in which Trump retreated from the United States’ recognition and remembrance of the Armenian Genocide, by not even mentioning the term genocide.
“In the first genocide of the last century, a million and a half Armenian men, women and children were murdered by an Ottoman Empire determined to annihilate an entire people. It took decades, but the United States finally rejected a shameful silence over the Armenian Genocide and Ankara’s campaign of threats and intimidation. As the author of the Armenian Genocide resolution in the House, I was grateful to see such recognition pass on an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote,” Schiff said in a statement.
“Today, President Trump has retreated from recognizing the Armenian Genocide and betrayed the memory of those who were lost. This may gratify the Turkish dictator, but it is a profound setback to the cause of justice and human rights,” Schiff emphasized.
In his own statement commemorating the Armenian Genocide earlier on Thursday, Schiff warned of Turkey’s ongoing campaign to deny the Genocide and condemns Azerbaijan for echoing “the genocidal language and actions of a century ago.”
“We must hold Azerbaijan and those who continue to threaten Armenia and its people accountable,” Schiff emphasized.
“The United States must call for Azerbaijan’s release of Armenian hostages, advocate for the protected return of Armenians to Artsakh, and call attention to the destruction and desecration of Armenian religious and cultural sites by Azerbaijan in its effort to erase Armenian culture and history. The United States must also urge the immediate withdrawal of Azerbaijani forces from Armenian territory, release of prisoners of war, support Armenia’s sovereignty, maintain international monitoring on Armenia’s borders, and provide security assistance to Armenia,” the senator added.
Schiff led the effort in the U.S. Congress to officially recognize the Armenian Genocide. After 20 years as the author of the resolution in Congress affirming the facts of the genocide, Congress passed his resolution in an overwhelming bipartisan vote in 2019.
In 2021, President Joe Biden became the first sitting President to recognize the Armenian Genocide.
