OK OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE BILL PREDICTED
By Richard Simon, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
Los Angeles Times, CA
Oct 3 2007
A House resolution calling World War I killings by Turks an attempted
extermination will pass, the majority leader says.
WASHINGTON — A top congressional Democratic leader predicted Tuesday
that a controversial resolution calling the early 20th century killings
of Armenians by Ottoman Turks a genocide will pass the House. That
expectation came despite Bush administration worries that the vote
would offend Turkey, an important U.S. ally.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), a co-sponsor, made that
prediction. He said he hoped for a vote before Thanksgiving.
The resolution’s supporters believed its prospects brightened after
Democrats took control of Congress this year and Nancy Pelosi, who
backs the measure, became speaker.
But the House has not acted even though the bill has gained 226
cosponsors, more than a majority. On Tuesday, however, the House
Foreign Affairs Committee scheduled a vote on the resolution for Oct.
10. Lobbying, both for and against it, has picked up.
"We’re encouraged," said Rep. George Radanovich (R-Mariposa), a chief
sponsor. "This is not about the present government, nor about the
Turkish people," Hoyer said in an interview. "It is about a tragic
effort that was made by a previous government almost a century ago,
in which we believe very strongly that a genocide was perpetrated
on the Armenian people. If we are not to relive and see again those
kinds of incidents, it’s important that we remember them historically
and make sure the world condemns such actions."
No date has been set for action in the Senate, where the resolution
has 31 cosponsors, including Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). A
Senate leadership aide said the chamber might consider the resolution
once the House acts.
The resolution, which calls on the president to use the word genocide
when discussing "the systematic and deliberate annihilation of 1.5
million Armenians," has been opposed by President Bush, a Republican,
just as it was opposed by President Clinton, a Democrat.
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, a Democratic presidential
candidate, is a cosponsor of the resolution.
Eight former secretaries of state from Democratic and Republican
administrations recently signed a letter to Pelosi warning that passage
of the resolution "could endanger our national security interests in
the region, including our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, and damage
efforts to promote reconciliation between Armenia and Turkey."
But Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian also wrote to Pelosi,
saying: "To view acknowledgment of the truth as an obstacle to
political relations is cynical. A resolution that addresses matters of
human rights and genocide cannot damage anyone’s bilateral relations —
neither yours with Turkey, nor ours."
Armenians say that 1.5 million of their people perished as part of a
campaign to drive them out of eastern Turkey. The Turkish government
has contended that large numbers of both Armenians and Turks died as
a result of civil war, famine and disease that plagued the country.
Similar resolutions were approved by the House in 1975 and 1984, but
did not make it through the Senate. A 1990 resolution was blocked by
a Senate filibuster.
"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," said Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank), a chief sponsor of
the resolution.
"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?"