HOUSE PANEL BACKS ARMENIAN MEASURE OVER OBJECTIONS
By Viola Gienger
Bloomberg
Oct 11 2007
Oct. 10 (Bloomberg) — A congressional panel approved a resolution
calling for the U.S. to designate the World War I-era killings of 1.5
million Armenians as genocide, amid warnings that the measure would
harm relations with Turkey.
The nonbinding resolution, backed by the House Foreign Affairs
Committee on a 27-21 vote, calls for a reversal in the practice
by successive presidential administrations of avoiding referring
to the deaths as genocide in an annual April message commemorating
the event. More than half of the House’s 435 members have signed on
as co-sponsors.
"The sad truth is the modern government of Turkey refuses to come to
terms with this genocide," said Republican Representative Chris Smith
of New Jersey. "It is this denial that keeps the Armenian genocide
a burning issue."
The measure, encouraged for years by ethnic Armenians in the U.S.,
has prompted threats by Turkey to cut off cooperation with the U.S.
in the war in neighboring Iraq. Turkey is a member of the North
Atlantic Treaty Organization and also borders Syria and Iran.
Turkish President Abdullah Gul called the House panel’s vote
"unacceptable," Agence France-Presse reported, citing the Anatolia
news agency.
The decision "has no validity and respectability for the Turkish
people," Gul said, according to the news agency.
President George W. Bush and other administration officials warned
that the resolution, pushed by California Democrat Adam Schiff,
threatens relations with Turkey, an ally the U.S. is relying on for
help throughout the Middle East.
`The Tragic Suffering’
"We all deeply regret the tragic suffering of the Armenian people,"
Bush said today on the White House South Lawn. "This resolution is
not the right response to these mass killings."
Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice also said the resolution threatens U.S. security interests.
"Access would be very much at risk if this resolution passes," Gates
said outside the White House.
Turkey denies that a systematic slaughter of Armenians took place,
saying Armenians and Turks alike were killed in ethnic clashes between
1915 and 1923 after Armenian groups sided with Russia in World War I.
Passage of the resolution will hurt U.S. efforts to bolster security in
Iraq because Turkey will be less inclined to support its NATO ally,
Egemen Bagis, an adviser to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan,
told Turkey’s CNN Turk news channel.
"This draft resolution will put U.S. soldiers in danger," he said.
"If our ally accuses us of crimes that we did not commit then we will
start to question the advantages of our cooperation."
Left to Historians
Defining the incidents should be left to historians, Turkish Ambassador
to the U.S. Nabi Sensoy said in a Sept. 13 interview.
The resolution calls on the president to ensure that U.S. foreign
policy "reflects appropriate understanding and sensitivity" related
to issues including documented evidence that the event constituted
genocide.
Bush also should "accurately characterize the systematic and deliberate
annihilation" of 1.5 million Armenians as a genocide in his annual
April message commemorating the killings, according to the resolution.
Previous Years
In previous years, the Bush administration persuaded then House Speaker
Dennis Hastert to block such votes. Current Speaker Nancy Pelosi,
a California Democrat, has supported genocide resolutions in the past.
California is home to as many as a third of Americans of Armenian
descent. Schiff’s district is 11 percent ethnic Armenian, according
to the Almanac of American Politics.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said Democratic leaders will push
the measure through the House before Congress completes its work for
this year.
"It will come to the floor before we leave here on November 16,"
Hoyer said. He and Pelosi met today with Sensoy, who reiterated his
warnings that relations between the countries would be harmed.
In the Senate, the measure is co-sponsored by 32 of the 100 members,
led by Illinois Democrat Richard Durbin.
Former U.S. Senator Bob Dole urged the House Foreign Affairs Committee
members to pass today’s resolution.
"I believe that any diplomatic fallout will be transient and that
Turkey and the United States have a broad and deep relationship that
will survive our recognition of this historic truth," he said in a
letter to committee members dated Oct. 5.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
