U.S. CONGRESSIONAL PANEL TO VOTE ON ARMENIA GENOCIDE RESOLUTION
The Associated Press

International Herald Tribune, France
Oct 2 2007

WASHINGTON: A U.S. congressional panel next week plans to vote
on a resolution vociferously opposed by Turkey that would declare
the killing of up to 1.5. million Armenians almost a century ago
a genocide.

The House Foreign Affairs Committee plans to vote on the resolution
on Oct. 10, according to Rep. Adam Schiff, who is sponsoring the
resolution.

The dispute involves the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Armenians
during the waning years of the Ottoman Empire. Armenian advocates,
backed by many historians, contend the Armenians died in an organized
genocide. The Turks say the Armenians were victims of widespread chaos
and governmental breakdown as the 600-year-old empire collapsed in
the years before Turkey was born in 1923.

"The United States has a compelling historical and moral reason to
recognize the Armenian Genocide, which cost a million and a half
people their lives," Schiff said in a statement. "But we also have
a powerful contemporary reason as well — how can we take effective
action against the genocide in Darfur if we lack the will to condemn
genocide whenever and wherever it occurs?"

The committee passed a similar resolution in the last Congress,
which was then controlled by Republicans, but the measure was never
brought up for a vote by the party leadership.

The Bush administration, which has heard threats from the Turkish
government that passage of Schiff’s resolution would damage relations,
has been trying to quash it. Turkey is a NATO ally and lets the
U.S. use an air base in its country for operations in Iraq.

If the resolution is approved by the committee, it would be up to
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to decide whether to bring it to the House
floor for a vote. While Pelosi has previously expressed support for
recognizing the killings as genocide, it is not clear whether she
would bring this resolution to a vote.