ARMENPRESS
PELOSI SAYS RESOLUTION TO BE PRESENTED FOR ENTIRE
HOUSE VOTE
WASHINGTON, OCTOBER 12, ARMENPRESS: House of
Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday she
would present an Armenian Genocide bill to the House
despite US and Turkish anger over the measure.
`I don’t have a date in mind, but it will before
the end of this session. I’ve said if comes out of
committee it will go to the floor. Now it has come out
of committee and it will go to the floor,’ said Pelosi
during her weekly Capitol Hill briefing.
`I’ve been in Congress for 20 years and for 20
years people have been saying the same thing that
Turkey’s strategic location in the Cold War–that was
before the Soviet Union came down. Then they said that
because of their strategic location. Then came the
Gulf War I. Then in the Clinton years, it was the
pipeline and airspace. Now they’re saying it is Gulf
War II. They are saying ‘why do it now?’ Because, all
of us in the Democratic leadership have supported
[it]. We are reiterating Americans’ acknowledgement of
the Genocide. When the Genocide was happening, our
diplomats there reported a plan for the
annihilation–elimination–of a race of Armenians. One
that was planned ahead,’ added Pelosi.
`Ronald Reagan–President Reagan–in 1981 referred
to the Armenian Genocide and said that we cannot
forget that and other persecutions of people that have
occurred. While that may have been a long time ago,
genocide is taking place now in Darfur. It did in
recent memory in Rwanda. So, as long as there’s
Genocide there’s a need to speak against it,’
emphasized Pelosi.
The Speaker rejected the assertion from a reporter
that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s
decision to move ahead with a planned incursion into
Northern Iraq was tied to Wednesday’s vote in the
House Committee.
`You think the Prime Minister of Turkey asked the
parliament of Turkey for permission to have an
incursion into Iraq because of the Armenian
resolution? I don’t think so. This is about Turkey’s
plans. This isn’t about our resolution about the
Genocide,’ asserted Pelosi.
`If the prime minister would imply that but for the
resolution they wouldn’t have this incursion; I don’t
think so!’ commented Pelosi.