CONGRESSMAN SCHIFF, SECRETARY RICE DISCUSS ARMENIAN GENOCIDE RESOLUTION DURING HEARING ON CAPITOL HILL
Arminfo
2007-03-22 14:46:00
In a hearing today before the State, Foreign Operations Appropriations
Subcommittee in the House of Representatives, lawmakers raised a
series of concerns regarding past and current genocides, reports the
Armenian Assembly of America.
Specifically, Congressman Adam Schiff (D-CA) raised pointed questions
regarding the Administration’s opposition to H. Res. 106, which he
introduced in January, and that reaffirms the historical fact of
the Armenian Genocide and recalls the proud chapter of humanitarian
intervention by the United States.
The bipartisan legislation is cosponsored by more than 180 Members
of Congress, and is buoyed by the recent introduction of a similar
bill in the Senate by Assistant Majority Leader Richard Durbin (D-IL)
and Senator John Ensign (R-NV).
In a spirited exchange, Schiff asked Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice how the U.S., if unwilling to recognize the Armenian Genocide as
such, has the "moral authority that we need to condemn the genocide
in Darfur if we do not acknowledge those atrocities that occurred
earlier…" Schiff continued, "Is there any doubt in your mind?"
"I think the historical circumstances require that we allow historical
commissions to explore this issue and come to terms with their past,"
Rice answered.
"You come from academia, is there anything in your background or
training that would leave you to believe that this murder of 1.5
million people was not a genocide?" he asked.
"Yes, I do come from academia, but now I am secretary of state,"
Rice explained. "I think that the Armenians and the Turks need to
resolve their past before they can move forward."
"When Hrant Dink is murdered on his doorstep, when the Turkish
government moves to bring him up on charges of ‘insulting Turkishness,’
I don’t see Turkey as being a democracy that signifies progress,"
Schiff explained.
"I do think there is an evolution going on in Turkey," Rice
replied. "Like many historical tragedies, people need to deal with
their past." Rice also added this: "Congressman, we have recognized
the historical circumstances [and] we do recognize it in Presidential
statements."
Schiff, in a second round of questioning, said "urging the Congress
to igno re [the Armenian Genocide] or abide by Turkish Article 301"
is not the solution. "We should encourage Turkey to acknowledge the
undeniable facts of the Armenian Genocide." Schiff also noted that
the U.S. does not support commissions to study Holocaust denial and
that we should not get into the business of historical commissions.
Executive Director Bryan Ardouny, who attended today’s hearing, thanked
Congressman Schiff for raising this important human rights issue.
"We have a fundamental policy disagreement with the Administration,"
Ardouny said. "We cannot allow Turkey’s insidious Article 301, which
penalizes discussion of the Armenian Genocide, to be exported to the
U.S. Further, calls to establish an historical commission to study
the Armenian Genocide ignore the existing scholarship. Every serious
study on the events of 1915 has reached the same conclusion. The fact
of the Armenian Genocide is incontestable."
Ardouny added that 126 Holocaust and genocide scholars have declared
the genocide an incontestable fact. Furthermore, the International
Center for Transitional Justice released a legal study on the use of
the term Armenian Genocide, which states that: "The Events, viewed
collectively, can thus be said to include all of the elements of the
crime of genocide as defined in the Convention, and legal scholars as
well as historians, politicians, journalists and other people would
be justified in continuing to so describe them."
"I was disappointed that Secretary of State Rice was unwilling to
acknowledge the plain facts of the Armenian Genocide," Schiff told
the Assembly. "We cannot maintain the moral force we need to take
action against the genocide going on in Darfur, if the Administration
continues to equivocate about the genocide against the Armenians."