Zaman, Turkey
July 17 2004

Armenian Lobby Tries for ‘Genocide Condition’ in US Aid

The Armenian lobby in US managed to add an amendment to the House of
Representatives US$19.4 billion 2005 foreign aid package. The lobby’s
amendment would ban foreign aid from being used against so-called
Armenian genocide lobby activities.

Speaker of the House Dennis Hasters stressed yesterday that the
Republicans in the House were against the amendment that was appended
to the foreign aid bill at the last minute. Hasters added that US
President George W. Bush also objects to this initiative and that
several members of the House will insist on discarding the article
from the final text.

One of the leaders of the Armenian lobby, Democrat Party California
Representative Adam Schiff, prepared the amendment that envisages not
allowing American foreign aid to be used against the activities of
the so-called Armenian genocide lobby. The American Armenian National
Congress describes this development as a “strong success against
Turkey’s campaign for denial of the genocide.”

Approval of the bill is difficult

Hasters pointed out that using American aid for lobbying is banned
anyway in accordance with US laws and therefore, he emphasized, the
Armenian motion is “meaningless”.

“We have great relations with Turkey and we should not let these be
destroyed because of a poorly written and meaningless motion,”
Hasters said.

In order for a bill to be adopted in the US Congress both the House
and Senate need to approve identical versions of the bill; however,
in this particular case it will be near impossible to achieve as many
similar motions have been shot down in the past. Even if the foreign
aid package were approved with the ‘genocide’ amendment, the US
President could always exercise his veto power.
From: Baghdasarian