Washington DC Council Unanimously Passes Armenian Genocide Resolution After Trump Refuses to Say “Genocide”

Following Trump’s omission of the word “genocide” on April 24th, the Washington DC City Council unanimously passed a resolution marking the 110th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide - reaffirming the importance of educating future generations to prevent such atrocities from happening again.

“From the bottom of our hearts, we thank DC Councilmember Charles Allen for leading this initiative and the entire DC City Council for its unanimous adoption. This is yet another example of DC standing on the right side of history. As a global human rights city, we must continue to recognize genocide and ensure that our public schools teach it properly. That is exactly why we have launched an initiative to ensure OSSE takes Armenian Genocide education seriously,” stated ANCA of Washington DC Chair Matthew Girardi.

The ANC of DC has launched community wide action alert calling on the  Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) to ensure robust and inclusive genocide education in the DC public schools, including resources on the 1915 Armenian Genocide and the 2023 Artsakh genocide.

On April 24, 2025, President Donald Trump issued a statement marking Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day but notably avoided using the word “genocide” to describe the systematic extermination of 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Empire in 1915. This omission drew sharp criticism from Armenian American advocacy groups and human rights organizations, especially since both President Joe Biden and numerous international bodies have officially recognized the atrocity as genocide in recent years. Trump’s language was seen as a step backward in the ongoing effort for global acknowledgment and education about the Armenian Genocide.