CHANCES FADING FOR ARMENIA GENOCIDE VOTE
Congressional Quarterly, DC
Oct 17 2007
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi acknowledged today that an Armenian
genocide resolution she supports might not make it to the House
floor, as growing opposition spurred by fierce lobbying from the Bush
administration and the Turkish government put its adoption in doubt.
The non-binding resolution (H Res 106) calls on President Bush to
recognize as genocide the deaths of 1.5 million Armenians in the
former Ottoman Empire nearly a century ago. The administration and
most Republicans oppose a floor vote on the measure, which the House
Foreign Affairs Committee approved Oct. 10.
Pelosi, D-Calif., said she would consult with the remaining sponsors
to see if there is still enough momentum among Democrats to bring the
measure to a floor vote in the coming weeks. "I am working with them
to see what their wish is," she said.
Pelosi has long supported the resolution and in the past has promised
to bring it up for a vote. Thousands of Armenian-Americans make up
a vocal and influential community in her home district in California.
But about a dozen Democrats have withdrawn their sponsorship and
even more have said they won’t vote for it on the floor, prompting
Democratic leaders to reconsider.
"If it came to the floor today it would not pass," said John P. Murtha,
D-Pa.
The measure has angered NATO ally Turkey, and the administration has
warned that its adoption would harm U.S. foreign policy efforts in
the region. It also could touch off a widening of the war in Iraq
by emboldening Turkey to strike at Kurdish separatists hiding there
among their ethnic brethren.
Earlier, the Turkish parliament voted to authorize cross-border
military strikes on the separatists.
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