Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) blocked a Senate resolution that would have officially recognized the Armenian genocide following a request from White House officials, he told Axios on Sunday.
Graham said he blocked the resolution because Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, was in town to meet with President Trump at the time.
“After the meeting, we kind of huddled up and talked about what happened,” Graham told Axios on Saturday, referring to senior White House officials, who he said asked him to “please object” to the Senate resolution.
“I said sure,” Graham told Axios, adding, “The only reason I did it is because he [Erdogan] was still in town.”
“That would’ve been poor timing. I’m trying to salvage the relationship [between the U.S. and Turkey] if possible,” he continued.
Asked whether he felt uncomfortable blocking the Armenian genocide resolution, Graham replied: “Yeah. Because I like Bob [Menendez]. He’s been working on this for years, but I did think with the president of Turkey in town that was probably more than the market would bear.”
“I’m not going to object next time,” Graham added.
Last week Menendez and his Republican Senate colleague Ted Cruz introduced the Armenian genocide resolution again. This time it was blocked by another Republican Senate ally, David Perdue.
“Senator Perdue objected due to concerns that passage of the resolution would jeopardize the sensitive negotiations going on in the region with Turkey and other allies,” said a Perdue spokesperson.
