White House directed block of Armenian genocide resolution

Duvar English

Senior White House staff asked Republican Senator Lindsey Graham to block a resolution that would have formally recognized the mass killings of Armenians in 1915 as a "genocide."

The move came following the meeting between President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and U.S. President Donald Trump in the White House on Nov. 13, Axios reported on Nov. 25.

The relationship between Ankara and Washington has been going through a rocky period, with the former's offensive in northern Syria against the People's Protection Units (YPG) drawing ire from the latter.

Turkey launched its offensive on Oct. 9, which was followed by days of fast-moving events between the two NATO allies.

During the meeting, Erdoğan pulled out his iPad and showed the Oval Office group a video critical of the YPG and the leader of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), Mazloum Kobani.

Turkey perceives the YPG to be a terrorist group due to its links with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

The South Carolina Republican then criticized Erdoğan over the clip.

"Well, do you want me to go get the Kurds to make one about what you've done?" he said.

As Graham was leaving the Oval Office, senior White House staff asked him to return to the Senate and block the Armenian genocide resolution — a measure that would have infuriated Turkey.

"After the meeting, we kind of huddled up and talked about what happened," Graham said.

A White House legislative affairs official told Graham that Democrat Bob Menendez was going to bring up his Armenian genocide resolution and asked if Graham could "please object."

"I said sure," Graham said. "The only reason I did it is because he [Erdoğan] was still in town. … That would've been poor timing. I'm trying to salvage the relationship if possible."

Asked whether he felt uncomfortable blocking the Armenian genocide resolution, Graham replied: "Yeah. Because I like Bob [Menendez]. He's been working on this for years, but I did think with the president of Turkey in town that was probably more than the market would bear."

"I'm not going to object next time," Graham added.

Last week, Menendez and his Republican Senate colleague Ted Cruz introduced the Armenian genocide resolution again. This time, the White House asked another Republican Senate ally, David Perdue, to block it.

"Senator Perdue objected due to concerns that passage of the resolution would jeopardize the sensitive negotiations going on in the region with Turkey and other allies," said a Perdue spokesperson.