HOUSE PANEL BACKS ARMENIAN GENOCIDE BILL

Radio Liberty, Czech rep.
Oct 11 2007

The Foreign Affairs Committee of the U.S. Congress’ House of
Representatives on Wednesday approved by 27 votes to 21 Resolution
106 describing the World War I-era killings of Armenians in Ottoman
Turkey as genocide.

Bryan Ardouny, executive director of the Armenian Assembly of America,
lauded "a historic day" after the committee’s vote.

"It is long past time for the US government to acknowledge and affirm
this horrible chapter of history — the first genocide of the 20th
century and a part of history that we must never forget," he said.

The text of the resolution says the killings of up to 1.5 million
Armenians was a genocide that should be acknowledged fully in
U.S. foreign policy towards Turkey, along with "the consequences of
the failure to realize a just resolution."

The House panel approved the resolution despite opposition from the
Bush administration that said "it may do grave harm to US-Turkish
relations and to US interests in Europe and the Middle East."

But despite the warnings, the resolution’s backers warned the issue
could not be ignored as they drew parallels to the Holocaust and the
present-day bloodshed in the Sudanese region of Darfur.

"We’ve been told the timing is bad," Democratic House member Gary
Ackerman said in an emotional hearing that lasted nearly four hours.

"But the timing was bad for the Armenian people in 1915."

Republican Representative Christopher Smith said the resolution was
not a slight on modern Turkey, adding: "Friends don’t let friends
commit crimes against humanity."

Republican lawmaker Dan Burton, however, said passage of the genocide
resolution could endanger US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"We’re in the middle of two wars. We have troops out there who are
at risk. And we’re talking about kicking an ally in the teeth. It
is crazy."

The measure is likely to be sent on to a vote in the full
Democratic-led House, where a majority has already signed on to the
resolution. A parallel measure is in the Senate pipeline.

On Thursday, on behalf of Armenian parliamentarians, Armenian
Parliament Speaker Tigran Torosian expressed gratitude to the American
congressmen on the House Foreign Affairs Committee for approving the
genocide resolution.

Opening the Armenian parliament’s session today he stated: "On behalf
of the parliament I want to express my gratitude to the Foreign
Affairs Committee of the U.S. Congress’s House of Representatives who,
having shown high moral qualities not to succumb to various pressures,
voted for the genocide resolution."

Armenian President Robert Kocharian also hailed "the efforts of
U.S. congressmen to recognize the Armenian genocide."

"The recognition of historical justice cannot damage the U.S.-Turkey
bilateral relationship," Kocharian said in Brussels, responding to the
concerns voiced by certain congressmen on the committee on Wednesday.

The Armenian president also added that despite the tension that once
emerged in the Turkish-French relations after France recognized the
Armenian genocide, trade between the two countries grew 1.5 times
only a year later.

Kocharian also advocated starting a dialogue with Turkey without
any pre-set conditions which he called "the easiest formula" for
reconciliation between the two neighbors.