President Donald Trump’s administration rejected the U.S. Senate resolution recognizing the Armenian genocide in a tersely worded statement.

“The position of the Administration has not changed. Our views are reflected in the President’s definitive statement on the issue from last April.”

The Trump administration in November asked Sen. Lindsey Graham to block the resolution, which he did. But in a rare moment of bipartisan agreement last week, the resolution passed the Senate unanimously, marking the first time the U.S. has formally recognized the 1915 deaths of 1.5 million Armenians under the Ottoman Empire.

“To overlook human suffering is not who we are as a people,” said Democrat Sen. Robert Menendez, who co-sponsored the bill along with Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz. “It is not what we stand for as a nation. We are better than that, and our foreign policy should always reflect this.”

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan immediately threatened to retaliate by recognizing the killing of Native Americans.

“Can we speak about America without mentioning [Native Americans]? It is a shameful moment in US history,” said Erdogan.

“We should oppose [the United States] by reciprocating such decisions in parliament. And that is what we will do,” he said.

All of this is occurring in an increasingly hostile landscape, where Congress has threatened sanctions against Turkey for its actions against the Kurds in Syria and its purchase of the Russian S-400 missile system. In October, the House passed a bill to sanction Turkey by an overwhelming 403-16 vote, and last week, a U.S. Senate committee backed legislation to sanction Turkey.

If Trump approves the sanctions, Erdogan says he will close down two U.S. military bases in Turkey that are believed to have approximately 50 nuclear bombs.

As The American Conservative  previously reported, candidates Barack Obama and Donald Trump both said they would recognize the Armenian genocide; but as presidents, each failed to follow through. President Ronald Reagan was the last U.S. president to use the term “genocide” with regards to the Armenians.