The US decision to finally recognize the Armenian Genocide comes after decades of threats by Turkish lobbyists in Washington.

The narrative that the lobbyists presented was that if Washington would only use the term “genocide” for a crime committed 106 years ago by a former government in what is now Turkey, then Ankara would rapidly move to sanction the US, close its bases, threaten its citizens and ally with Iran, China and Russia or other US enemies.

This bizarre, mafia-like threat is the same one that Tehran used regarding the Iran deal. It is because non-Western countries learned that the way to deal with Western countries was to prey on their fears.

For instance, Pakistan is now threatening to expel France’s ambassador because religious extremists in the Muslim country claim to be offended by cartoons published years ago in a French magazine.

Ankara’s attempt to hold countries hostage for the Armenian Genocide has worked well for many years. It prevented many of them, including Israel, from “offending” Ankara by mentioning the genocide.

It’s unclear if this same blackmail would have worked had Germany told countries in 1946 that they couldn’t mention the Holocaust because Germany would be “offended”, so that Western countries would have denied the Shoah the way some continue to deny the Armenian Genocide.

Read more: JPost