ARMENIAN GENOCIDE RESOLUTION IS UNDER CONSIDERATION OF HOUSE COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Arminfo
2007-02-22 13:36:00
The resolution is now before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs,
whose chairman, Rep. Tom Lantos of California, has supported the
Armenian genocide resolution in recent sessions, though he opposed
it in the past.
Turkey was so alarmed by a proposed House resolution calling the
mass slaughter of Armenians by Turks during World War I a "genocide"
that it dispatched its foreign minister to persuade American Jewish
leaders to lobby against it. At a suite at the Willard Hotel in
Washington on February 5, Abdullah Gul met with representatives
of the Anti-Defamation League, American Jewish Committee, American
Jewish Congress, American Israel Public Affairs Committee, Friends
of Lubavitch, Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, and
United Jewish Communities.
According to one participant in the meeting, the Turkish foreign
minister "made a hard sell," against House resolution 106, whose short
title is "Affirmation of the United States Record on the Armenian
Genocide Resolution." This participant, who asked not to be named,
said Mr. Gul appealed to the assembled Jewish representatives by noting
the singularity of the German genocide against the Jews and warning
that the House resolution, if passed, would rupture American-Turkish
relations.
The Turks have reason to be worried. Although the resolution has
faced opposition from the House leadership in previous congressional
sessions, the current speaker of the House, Rep. Nancy Pelosi of
California, is said to support it. Indeed, Ms. Pelosi has supported
similar resolutions in the past.