Fiorina gets into debate over Armenian genocide resolution

Senate candidate Carly Fiorina jumped into one of the most contentious issues in the House on the day when Armenians mark the killing of 1.5 million by the Ottoman Empire.

The House Foreign Affairs Committee narrowly passed a resolution March 4 to call the killings genocide, which sparked a tiff with Turkey in which the ambassador was recalled to Ankara for a month.

Fiorina issued a statement Saturday afternoon calling on Congress to pass the resolution and calling on President Barack Obama to recognize the killings as genocide, which he didn't in his Armenian Remembrance Day statement.

“There are periods in our history that are dark and horrible," Fiorina said. "They reveal the evil that exists in our world and underscore the atrocities that humankind is capable of committing.

"It is our duty to acknowledge the contemptible, premeditated crimes and horrible acts of genocide that were committed by the Ottoman Turks when they drove Armenians from their ancestral homeland during this dark period of human history," she said.

Armenian communities are prevalent in central and southern California, with the city of Glendale hosting one of the largest concentrations of Armenians in the U.S.