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Beginning in 1915, the Young Turks regime initiated a plan to exterminate the Armenians of the Ottoman Empire. Turkish military officers and commanders orchestrated a premeditated cleansing of Christians Armenians from Ottoman territories whom they considered an impediment to their “Turkification” effort.
On April 24, 1915, the most prominent members of the Armenian community were gathered up and executed. So began the devastating period of genocide, defined by death marches, executions, beheadings, rape, hangings, dismemberment, and similarly horrific courses of extermination.
The U.S. remains gagged by Turkey’s silencing hand and avoids recognizing the Armenian Genocide because recognition, at least for now, is politically inconvenient.
All eight living former secretaries of state have signed a joint letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) warning that the nonbinding resolution "would endanger our national security interests." Three former defense secretaries, in their own letter, said Turkey probably would cut off U.S. access to a critical air base. The government of Turkey is spending more than $300,000 a month on communications specialists and high-powered lobbyists, including former congressman Bob Livingston, to defeat the initiative.