December 13, 2019 - 10:41 AMT
Turkey attacks U.S. Senate's Armenian Genocide vote

Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu called the U.S. Senate's decision to recignize the Armenian Genocide a “political show.”

The Senate passed the resolution on Thursday, December 12.

Sen. Bob Menendez passed the resolution, which provides "official recognition and remembrance" of the Armenian Genocide, by consent.

"We have just passed the Armenian genocide resolution ... and it is fitting and appropriate that the Senate stands on the right side of history in doing so. It commemorates the truth of the Armenian genocide," Menendez said from the Senate floor.

After the vote, Turkey presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said Ankara strongly condemned and rejected the measure. The resolution is nonbinding, Reuters reports.

“History will note these resolutions as irresponsible and irrational actions by some members of the US Congress against Turkey,” Fahrettin Altun, Turkey’s communications director, said on Twitter in response.

The move comes after three GOP senators previously blocked passage of the resolution amid pressure from the White House, which argued that it would undercut negotiations between Washington and Ankara, which vehemently opposes recognizing the killing of 1.5 million Armenians as genocide.