Bush can’t sway panel on Armenian genocide

By Associated Press | Thursday, October 11, 2007 |
| U.S. Politics

WASHINGTON – A U.S. congressional panel defied President Bush
yesterday and approved a measure to recognize the World War I-era
killings by Ottoman Turks of up to 1.5 million Armenians as a
genocide.

The bill is strongly opposed by Turkey, a key NATO ally that has
supported U.S. efforts in Iraq.

The House Foreign Affairs Committee’s 27-21 vote sends the bill to the
House floor. Bush had made a last-minute push to persuade lawmakers to
reject the measure.

"Its passage would do great harm to our relations with a key ally in
NATO and in the global war on terror," Bush said.

Committee Chairman Tom Lantos (D-Calif.), a Holocaust survivor who
backed a similar bill two years ago, this time warned of the potential
fallout if the proposal passed: "We have to weigh the desire to
express our solidarity with the Armenian people . . . against the risk
that it could cause young men and women in the uniform of the United
States armed services to pay an even heavier price than they are
currently paying," he said.

Turkey has raised the possibility of impeding U.S. military traffic
now using Turkish airspace. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said
passing the measure "at this time would be very problematic for
everything we are trying to do in the Middle East."

But with the House’s first order of business yesterday, Speaker Nancy
Pelosi signalled support for Armenians, allowing Armenian Orthodox
Supreme Patriarch Karekin II to deliver the morning prayer: "With the
solemn burden of history, we remember the victims of the genocide of
the Armenians. Give peace and justice on their descendants."

Source: /view.bg?articleid=1037304