Oct 30, 2019
The U.S. House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to officially recognize the mass killings of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire as genocide. Historians say an estimated 1.5 million Armenians died at the hands of the Ottoman Empire — the predecessor to modern-day Turkey — between 1915 and 1923.
The historic vote was 405 to 11 and is seen as a rebuke to Turkey, which has spent nearly a century denying there was a genocide.
Although the U.S. has several times recognized an Armenian genocide through presidential proclamations and House resolutions, this is the first time the full Congress passed a measure making it U.S. policy. It is unclear if the Senate will follow.