ANC-PAC CONDEMNS CHENEY’S EFFORTS TO BLOCK GENOCIDE RESOLUTION

ASBAREZ
2/6/2007

LOS ANGELES–The Armenian National Committee-Political Action
Committee forcefully condemns the Administration’s heavy-handed and
undemocratic efforts to block a Congressional consideration of the
Armenian Genocide Resolution.

Earlier this week, U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Ross Wilson sent email
messages to Turkish news organizations announcing the Administration’s
efforts to oppose the resolution. The human rights legislation was
introduced last Tuesday by Congressmen Adam Schiff (D-CA) and George
Radanovich (R-CA), along with Congressional Armenian Caucus Co-Chairs
Frank Pallone (D-NJ) and Joe Knollenberg (R-MI), and House Committee
on Foreign Affairs members Brad Sherman (D-CA) and Thaddeus McCotter
(R-MI). Within a day of its introduction, the measure was cosponsored
by over 160 additional U. S. Representatives.

"It’s a testament to the staggering moral bankruptcy of the
Administration’s position that our Ambassador in Turkey, Ross Wilson,
praised Hrant Dink as a great advocate of free speech on the day of
his funeral, and then, the following day, launched a preemptive attack
to prevent the U.S. Congress from even discussing legislation marking
the Armenian Genocide – the very crime Hrant Dink was murdered for
recognizing," commented an ANC-PAC spokesperson.

"The Administration’s heavy-handed approach – fueled by Vice President
Cheney and his neo-conservative allies in the departments of State
and Defense – has more in common with Article 301 of the Turkish
Penal Code than with the proud American tradition of free debate and
democratic decision-making. It is time for the Bush Administration
to scrap its version of Section 301 and allow Members of Congress to
vote in favor of properly recognizing and commemorating the Armenian
Genocide," added the spokesperson.

Article 301 is the law under which Istanbul-based Armenian journalist
Hrant Dink was sentenced for speaking openly about the Armenian
Genocide. He was murdered outside his newspaper’s office on January
19th.

Ambassador Wilson’s comments and the Bush administration’s opposition
of the Armenian Genocide Resolution further strain Armenian American
relations with the White House. President Bush’s re-nomination of
Richard Hoagland, an Armenian Genocide denier, as U.S. Ambassador to
Armenia is overwhelmingly opposed by Armenian-Americans as evidenced
by a recent poll showing 97% of Armenian-Americans opposing his
confirmation.

Though the Armenian Genocide Resolution has enjoyed overwhelming
support in the U.S. Congress for more than a decade, the selection of
Nancy Pelosi, a strong advocate of properly recognizing the Armenian
Genocide, as the Speaker of the House of Representatives, has made
official recognition by the U.S. House of Representatives considerably
more likely.

The ANC-PAC is a non-partisan federally registered political action
committee established to support campaign committees for Members of
Congress who share the values of the Armenian American community. The
ANC-PAC is at the forefront of efforts to ensure that the voice of
the Armenian American community is clearly heard in our nation’s
capital. The ANC-PAC continues a century old tradition of Armenian
Americans engagement on the public policy issues facing national
political leaders, both in the U.S. Congress and the White House.