Kim Kardashian is known for many things – breaking the internet, making a £56 million mobile game app, marrying Kanye West – but political activism probably isn't one of them. So fair play to her for throwing the full weight of her 31.4 million Twitter followers behind this cause: getting Turkey to formally recognise the Armenian genocide.

The Balmain campaign girl recalled her Armenian heritage in a Time op-ed published on the 100th anniversary of the massacre. Described by some as the "hidden Holocaust", an estimated 1.5 million Armenians were massacred by the Ottoman government in what is now present-day Turkey.

"My great-great-grandparents came from Armenia to Los Angeles in 1914, right before the genocide happened," she writes. "We have no existing family left in Armenia. Had they not escaped, we wouldn’t be here. There are so many people who lost their families, and the stories of how they were killed are so heartbreaking – they should never be forgotten. The whole point of remembering the genocide is to make sure it doesn’t happen again. A million-and-a-half people were brutally massacred, and a country can just pretend like it never happened? I don’t think that’s right."

She urged the Turkish government to acknowledge the historic genocide, writing: " I believe in moving on and looking toward a brighter future, but you can’t move on unless you acknowledge the past. To not do so is an act of disrespect."

Kardashian also said that Barack Obama's refusal to describe the killings as a genocide was "very disappointing". The US government has never recognised the genocide, mainly because Turkey is a key US ally in the region.

Earlier this month, Kardashian travelled to Armenia with her sister Khloe and West in April to film a documentary on the killings. But she's long agitated for the Armenian cause; every year, she marks the anniversary of the genocide on Instagram and Twitter. In 2011, she wrote on her blog: "Until this crime is resolved truthfully and fairly, the Armenian people will live with the pain of what happened to their families and the fear of what might happen again to their homeland."

Over the weekend, she also came out in support of stepfather Bruce Jenner's transition, tweeting:

In the ABC interview with Diane Sawyer, Jenner also said that Kardashian was the most supportive of the familial klan, telling him: "Girl, you gotta rock it and you gotta look good. If you’re doing this thing, I’m helping you."

So not only has Kardashian became the public face of a forgotten genocide, she's also turning into a huge trans ally. Kim Kardashian has great politics – who knew?