The White House Bulletin
October 12, 2007 Friday

Erdogan Blasts Democrats For Armenian Genocide Bill

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan today criticized a US
House Foreign Affairs Committee resolution declaring the killing of
Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915 genocide, saying, "Democrats are
harming the future of the United States and are encouraging
anti-American sentiments."

Clinton, Dodd Co-Sponsoring Senate Version Of Troublesome Armenian
Genocide Bill.

House committee passage of a bill condemning the Armenian Genocide by
the Ottoman Empire has set off a major row with key Middle Eastern
Ally. With House Speaker Nancy Pelosi promising a full vote on the
bill, H.R.106, now that it has passed out of committee, Turks are
reacting angrily just as the US seeks to prevent them from striking
at Kurdish rebels sheltering in Northern Iraq. While the House
version of the bill has drawn the attention of the media so far,
there is also a companion Senate measure, S.R.106. Among its
co-sponsors are two presidential candidates ? frontrunner Hillary
Clinton and long-shot Chris Dodd. Clinton, while still a co-sponsor,
did appear to back away from the measure during an interview with the
Boston Globe editorial board earlier this week. On Wednesday, Clinton
told the Globe she backed the bill because it appeared to her "to be
a statement of recognition of a horrible period in the history of the
Armenian people." She cautioned, however, that "many of us have been
somewhat taken aback by the ferocity of the Erdogan government’s
response. The adamant expression of real dismay and outrage by this
Turkish government has to be factored into this." Sens. Barack Obama,
Joe Biden and John McCain, also presidential candidates, are not
co-sponsors of the legislation. In the House, two long-shot GOP
candidates split on the issue ? Duncan Hunter has co-sponsored the
House bill, while Tom Tancredo has not. On the Democratic side, Rep.
Dennis Kucinich has endorsed the measure.