US genocide declaration changes little for Armenians Armenia (MNN) — Last month, the U.S. joined several other countries in Armenian Genocide. The Ottoman Empire, which covered modern-day Turkey, carried out this mass killing of 1.5 million Armenians during World War I. Eric Mock of the Slavic Gospel Association says this violence hangs over Armenians to this day. “They’re very aware of the assault on the Armenian people. In the recent conflict, it was very clear when Azerbaijan partnered with Turkey to bring in Syrian freedom fighters to fight in the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, that this tension between Turkey and Armenia has not subsided. So for the people of Armenia, they have always felt the assault of Turkey, always felt the assault on them as a people. And they feel a little bit boxed in with Azerbaijan on one side and Turkey on the other.”