Armneian authorities 'had no intervention' in Senate’s passage of Genocide resolution - expert

The Armenian authorities had no intervention at all in the passage by the US Senate on Thursday of Resolution S.Res.150 recognizing the Armenian Genocide, an expert in international relations said today, highlighting the declarative nature of the docuemnt.

“Neither this nor the earlier [resolution] – adopted by the House of Representatives  - sets any legally binding precondition to oblige the US president and administration officials to use ‘genocide’,” Suren Sargsyan told Tert.am, noting that the resolution is not subject to signature by President Donald Trump.

Commenting on the timing of the move with several senators’ veto on the scheduled debates, the expert pointed out to several circumstances.

“The anti-Turkish sentiments in Washington are very accentuated today as defending the Turks is really treated as an unthankful job. The Turkish-US relations have never been worse than this. The senators who enforced a veto faced public pressure – which was virtually stronger than the White House request. This is actually why they did not approve the veto,” Sargsyan said, desribing the outcome as the ″share of Armenia's victory″.

He also highlighted the US-Armenian community's contribution to the success, calling for further consistent efforts with the administration to eventually have the US president use ″genocide″ in its ful legal meaning.

″It is now time also for the Armenian authorities to get the matters moving as they have not had any engagement in the process over the entire period,″ he noted.