DOHA, Qatar — Turkey criticized the U.S. Senate Saturday, days after a unanimous vote to recognize the Armenian genocide.
In a live interview with MSNBC anchor Ayman Mohyeldin at the Doha Forum, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said he stood by his previous suggestion that those who supported the resolution are cowards.
The Turkish government vociferously opposed the measure to recognize the genocide. It had been blocked by the White House and three times by three different Republican senators, but passed Thursday.
“Politicians with limited knowledge about the history should not judge the history,” Çavuşoğlu said Saturday.
Çavuşoğlu wrote on Twitter earlier this week that the senate’s move was a “political show” and “not legally binding.”
Turkey has long denied that the 1.5 million Armenians killed from 1915-17 should be considered a genocide.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan complained about the House passing its version of the resolution during a meeting with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office last month.
Ivanka Trump and Senator Lindsey Graham, who also attended the forum, did not respond to these comments in their later sessions.
Graham had previously blocked efforts to pass the resolution on Armenian genocide.
Mohyeldin also questioned Çavuşoğlu about U.S. sanctions on Iran.
“Has the United States gotten any outcome of this or any results?” Çavuşoğlu said. “My answer is no.”
In a live interview directly after, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin responded to the Turkish criticism.
“We do think our program is working,” he said. “When [Iran is] ready we will take off the sanctions.”
Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif will be speaking at the Doha Forum Sunday.
