RICE LOBBIES LAWMAKERS AGAINST ARMENIAN GENOCIDE RESOLUTION
Dennis Zawacki II
JURIST
Univ. of Pittsburgh, School of Law
rice-lobbies-lawmakers-against-armenian.php
Oct 25 2007
[JURIST] US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told members of
the House Foreign Affairs Committee in testimony on US Middle East
policy Wednesday that House members should discontinue an effort to
pass a resolution condemning the World War-I era mass killings of
Armenians in the Ottoman Empire as genocide [HR 106 materials]. The
committee approved the resolution [JURIST report] earlier this month
and it is waiting to be brought to House floor, but support for the
measure among House members seems to be waning [JURIST report]. Rice
urged Congress not to pass the resolution, bearing in mind shared US
strategic interests with Turkey, a key ally of the United States in
the war in Iraq. She said passage would "severely harm" US-Turkish
relations. President Bush has similarly urged lawmakers not to endorse
the measure.
Turkey has long objected [JURIST comment] to any attempts to classify
the Armenian killings as genocide. Several other countries – including
France, Canada and Argentina – have nonetheless passed laws or
resolutions [BBC backgrounder] to that effect.