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From: Rich Sanikian <sanikian@msn.com>
Subject: Don’t sidestep issue
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Don’t sidestep issue
11/28/06
Fresno Bee Editorial

Speaker Pelosi says she supports Armenian genocide recognition.

Incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has long supported the idea of American
recognition of the genocide committed against the Armenian people by the
Ottoman Turks in the last years and aftermath of World War I. Now she has a
chance to do something concrete about that.

U.S. policy under administrations of both parties has been to sidestep the
issue in order not to offend Turkey, whose geographic position has long made
it a vital geopolitical ally in the eyes of generations of State Department
officials.

That strategic consideration has diminished after the end of the Cold War,
when Turkey, a member of NATO, was seen as a bulwark against Soviet threats
against the rest of the Middle East.

But that cold calculation has been a slap in the face for Armenian
Americans, survivors of the genocide and their descendants, as well as for
many others whose notion of justice outweighs such foreign policy concerns.
Some 1.5 million people perished in the genocide, and many hundreds of
thousands of others were rendered homeless refugees.

Pelosi has promised to launch a new effort in Congress to get official
recognition of those historical facts. Just last month she said this to the
California Courier, an Armenian newspaper:

"I have supported legislation, including House Resolution 316 that would
properly acknowledge the Armenian Genocide. It is imperative that the United
States recognize this atrocity and move to renew our commitment to eliminate
genocide whenever and wherever it exists. This effort enjoys strong
bipartisan support in the House, and I will continue to support these
efforts in the 110th Congress."

Last spring, during April 24 commemorations of the genocide in Washington,
Pelosi said: "First, at the time of the Iron Curtain, [opponents of the bill
cited] the strategic location of Turkey, after that it was the Gulf War and
Turkey’s strategic location … Turkey’s strategic location is not a license
to kill."

Pelosi has supported genocide recognition since she was first elected to
Congress in 1986.

Earlier this month, State Department official Matt Bryza appeared to signal
that the Bush administration would continue to oppose any legislation
recognizing the genocide. That might make it hard for Republicans in
Congress who have supported recognition, such as Mariposa’s George
Radanovich, to vote to override the veto of a president from their own
party, however much they may see the justice of doing so.

Perhaps Bush will decide to support recognition legislation, though he is a
president not much given to changing his mind.

In any case, Pelosi’s strong support for justice in this matter means the
official American recognition of the long-ago genocide is closer to reality
than ever. Let’s hope her principled stand of the past isn’t trumped by the
realities of geopolitics, State Department-style – as has happened too often
before.

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