On Tuesday, January 12, Florida Armenians Editor Taniel Koushakjian spoke with Florida Senator and Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio in Washington, D.C. Koushakjian thanked Rubio for his cosponsorship of S. Res. 140, the Armenian Genocide resolution currently pending in the Senate.

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They also discussed the plight of Christians in the Middle East and the need for the U.S. to declare Islamic State (aka ISIS or ISIL) attacks on Christians as genocide. Rubio pointed out that he is also an original cosponsor of S. Res. 340, which would label ISIS attacks on Armenians, Assyrians, Yezidis, and other religious minority groups in Iraq and Syria as genocide. ISIS “is conducting genocide against Christians, Yezidis, and others in region,” Rubio said two days later at the Republican presidential debate on Thursday, January 14.