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Turks link Armenia to US foes in bid to derail genocide nod

Ankara's allies raise concerns with Yerevan's ties to Iran and Russia.
People take part in a protest in support of Turkey's position on the 1915 mass killing of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, at Times Square in New York April 26, 2014. The exact nature and scale of what happened during fighting that started in 1915 is highly contentious and continues to sour relations between Turkey and Armenia, a former Soviet republic.  Turkey accepts that many Armenians died in clashes, but denies that up to 1.5 million were killed and that this constituted an act of genocide - a term use

Pro-Turkey groups are drawing attention to Yerevan's ties to US foes as the debate over whether to recognize an Armenian genocide intensifies.

The allegations have recently made their way into congressional hearings, lawmakers' correspondence and newspaper op-eds ahead of the centennial of the Ottoman-era massacres April 24. Critics say the accusations are a futile attempt to exploit congressional anger at Iran and Russia in a bid to derail a bipartisan genocide resolution commemorating the deaths of an estimated 1.5 million people.

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