SUPPORT DECLINES FOR ARMENIAN GENOCIDE BILL

Voice of America
Oct 17 2007

Protestors in Istanbul demonstrate against US Congressional committee’s
vote on Armenian genocide, 17 Oct 2007 Several U.S. lawmakers have
changed their minds about supporting a pending resolution that labels
Turkey’s 1915 killing of Armenians as genocide.

The decline in support of the resolution casts doubt on whether it
will be approved by Congress.

At a news conference in Washington Wednesday, President Bush
called on Congress to drop the resolution, which he describes as
counterproductive.

Turkey’s military chief General Yasar Buyukanit has warned the United
States that the alliance between the two nations will be at risk if
the House of Representatives approves the non-binding measure. The
resolution’s passage could also prompt Turkey to scale back its
assistance in the Iraq war.

The measure was approved last week by the House of Foreign Affairs
Committee.

Armenians accuse Ottoman Turks of massacring 1.5 million Armenians
from 1915 to 1923 in systematic deportations and killings to drive
them out of eastern Turkey. Turkey denies that genocide took place.

It calls the death toll exaggerated and says the Armenians died in
civil unrest during the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.