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WASHINGTON, DC, UNITED STATES, April 25, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) issued the following response to the White House's annual April 24th statement marking the 110th anniversary of the Ottoman Turkish Government’s systematic annihilation of 1.5 million Armenians.
“President Trump’s retreat from U.S. recognition of the Armenian Genocide represents a disgraceful surrender to Turkish threats – a shameful abrogation of our nation’s responsibility to prevent Azerbaijan and Turkey’s ongoing genocidal aggression against Christian Armenians,” stated ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian.
“Following Azerbaijan’s ethnic cleansing of Artsakh’s indigenous Christian Armenian population, and amid its ongoing abuse of Armenian prisoners, destruction of Armenian Christian heritage, and occupation of sovereign Armenia – President Trump has a duty to not only honestly and truthfully acknowledge the 1915 Armenian Genocide, but prevent its continuation at the hands of Turkey and Azerbaijan,” continued Hamparian.
During his 2024 presidential campaign, President Trump pledged on social media to “restore peace in the South Caucasus and stop the violence and ethnic cleansing.” His failure to use the word genocide – under foreign pressure – now stands in direct contradiction to that promise.
Hamparian noted that: “President Trump’s omission is not a diplomatic oversight – but rather a deliberate retreat from truth and a dangerous signal of U.S. tolerance for ongoing anti-Armenian violence. It mirrors his first Administration’s shameful record of silence and complicity.”
During his first term, President Trump refused to recognize the Armenian Genocide and provided unprecedented U.S. military assistance to Azerbaijan as it launched its genocidal assault on Artsakh’s Armenian population. His failure to hold Azerbaijan accountable for documented war crimes of 2020—including the torture of POWs, execution of civilians, and destruction of Christian heritage – is widely viewed as having laid the groundwork for Azerbaijan’s 2023 genocidal ethnic cleansing of Artsakh.
President Trump’s non-recognition stands in opposition to U.S. acknowledgment by the White House, Congress, and all 50 states.
The ANCA repeats our call on President Trump to honor the commitment he made during his campaign, and to lead a fundamental reset in U.S. policy toward Turkey and the South Caucasus—one that ends U.S. complicity in genocide denial, holds perpetrators accountable, and ensures peace grounded in justice and the right of return for the Christian Armenian people of Artsakh.
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Background: The Armenian Genocide and the U.S. Record of Recognition
April 24, 2025, marks the 110th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide – the Ottoman Turkish Government’s premeditated and systematic extermination of 1.5 million Armenians, along with 750,000 Assyrians, Greeks, Maronites, and other Christians. Between 1915 and 1923, more than two-thirds of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire was annihilated.
Modern-day Turkey – founded by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk – continues the genocide through denial, destruction of Armenian cultural heritage, and criminalization of remembrance. Turkey’s ally Azerbaijan has adopted similar policies and rhetoric, weaponizing denial and nationalism to justify its assault on the Armenian people of Artsakh and Armenia.
The United States first recognized the Armenian Genocide in 1951 through a submission to the International Court of Justice in the case of “Reservations to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.”
In 1981, President Ronald Reagan cited the Genocide in a Holocaust Remembrance statement. Congress has repeatedly acknowledged the Genocide, adopting resolutions in 1975, 1984, 1996, and 2019. That year, both the U.S. House (H.Res.220) and Senate (S.Res.150) passed measures recognizing the Genocide with overwhelming bipartisan support.
In 2021, President Joe Biden became the first U.S. President in decades to formally use the term "genocide" in his April 24 statement.
All 50 U.S. states have now formally recognized the Armenian Genocide through resolutions or proclamations, with Mississippi becoming the final state to do so in 2022.
The American response to the genocide included one of the largest humanitarian campaigns in U.S. history. From 1915 to 1930, the Near East Relief, mandated by Congress, raised the equivalent of $2.7 billion in today’s dollars. This effort rescued over 1 million refugees and 132,000 orphans, building more than 400 orphanages, clinics, schools, and food centers across the Near East.
The Armenian Genocide continues today. In 2020, Azerbaijan, backed by Turkey, launched a war against Artsakh, committing war crimes and displacing tens of thousands. In 2023, a brutal 10-month blockade culminated in Azerbaijan’s military assault on Artsakh, resulting in the genocidal ethnic cleansing of its entire indigenous Armenian population.
Since then, Azerbaijan has systematically destroyed Armenian churches, abused prisoners of war, and threatened renewed war on the Republic of Armenia. These actions are the modern continuation of the genocidal intent first unleashed in 1915.
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Elizabeth S. Chouldjian
Armenian National Committee of America
+1 703-585-8254
email us here
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