Ankara has accused Washington of “exploiting history” for political means after the US House overwhelmingly passed a set of bills acknowledging the 1915 Armenian genocide and calling for fresh sanctions against its NATO ally.
The House voted 405-11 on Tuesday for the measure commemorating the genocide, committed over a century ago by the Turkish Ottoman government, provoking a fierce rebuke from Turkey. This “shameful decision” is “null and void,” tweeted Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, who called the move an apparent “revenge” for Turkey’s independent foreign policy.
Doubling down on their pressure, US lawmakers also voted 403-11 in favor of a measure calling on President Trump to slap sanctions on Turkey’s financial sector and halt arms sales. Ankara said such threats were not befitting of an ally, and would violate a deal struck with the US administration earlier this month.
“We urge the US Congress not to exploit bilateral issues for domestic political consumption and to act in line with the spirit of our Alliance and partnership,” Turkey’s Foreign Ministry said.
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Ties between the two NATO allies have suffered in recent weeks over their conflicting missions in Syria, where Washington maintains an illegal occupation of oil fields, and spent years embedded with Kurdish militias Ankara accuses of terrorism. A Turkish cross-border operation launched earlier this month to push Kurdish fighters away from the Syrian-Turkish borderline sparked intense protest from US lawmakers, who accused President Donald Trump of ‘betraying’ US allies.
The sanctions threat was “a disappointment to say the least,” Turkish lawmaker Ravza Kavakci told RT, adding that “instead of working together with Turkey,” Washington has chosen to support a Kurdish “terrorist group as their boots on the ground.”
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