DEMOCRATIC SUPPORT FOR U.S. GENOCIDE BILL DECREASES
Jay Olle – AHN News Writer
AHN – All Headline News
Oct 17 2007
Washington, D.C. (AHN) – The White House appeared triumphant, with
its strong opposition over the Genocide Bill, as support decreased
Tuesday night.
Last week, U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee passed a bill
calling the killings of Armenians by Turkish forces during World
War I "genocide." The move, strongly lobbied by Armenian-American
interest groups, pushed through the congressional panel despite strong
contradictions from President Bush and several other officials.
The Turkish government has taken great offense to the bill, which has
yet to even come to a full vote on the House floor. Turkish Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday his country is ready to
sacrifice good ties with Washington if the bill is passed.
The U.S. military is also concerned with a possible Turkish backlash.
The Pentagon uses Turkey as a staging area and transport route for
much of the supplies that are sent to Iraq and Afghanistan.
Furthermore, Turkey is a major client of American weapons. Ankara
currently spends almost $200 billion on American-made aircraft,
torpedoes and other military equipment.
Warnings from both Washington and Ankara created apprehension in the
House including democratic lawmakers.
This week, U.S. House delegation to NATO Representatives Alcee Hastings
of Florida and John Tanner of Tennessee, both democrats, released a
communication urging House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to reconsider the bill.
Democratic Representative Allen Boyd also dropped his support to the
resolution Monday night. "Turkey obviously feels they are getting
poked in the eye over something that happened a century ago and maybe
this isn’t a good time to be doing that," he said. "I think it is a
good resolution and horrible timing," according to another Democrat
from Arkansas, Representative Mike Ross.
On Tuesday, Mr. Bush talked to Ms. Pelosi asking the house speaker
for to deter the passage of the resolution through the house vote.
Spokesman to Ms. Pelosi, Brendan Daly stated, "The president and the
speaker exchanged candid views on the subject and the speaker explained
the strong bipartisan support in the House for the resolution."
The resolution remains at limbo with resistance from the Republican
and waning support from several Democrats.
"We will have to determine where everyone is," said Majority Leader
Representative Steny H. Hoyer on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the Pentagon has already laid out logistical contingency
plans in case the bill passes the house and Turkey retaliates by
closing U.S. air base and transport systems in their territory which
are vital to the U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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