UNITED STATES EXTENDS FULL SUPPORT TO PROCESS BETWEEN ARMENIA AND TURKEY

PanARMENIAN.Net
16.02.2010 16:48 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Commission for External Relations of Turkish
Parliament will inform the U.S. Ambassador in Ankara on its views about
the decision of U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Foreign
Affairs for a vote on Armenian Genocide Resolution 252, Murat Mercan
chairman of Turkish Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Relations said
at the meeting with the U.S. Ambassador in Ankara James F. Jeffrey.

Mercan asked the Ambassador James Jeffrey, whether that process can
undermine the normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations. According
to the American diplomat, the United States extends full support to
the normalization process between Armenia and Turkey, Anatolian News
Agency reported.

The Armenian Genocide (1915-23) was the deliberate and systematic
destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during
and just after World War I. It was characterized by massacres, and
deportations involving forced marches under conditions designed to
lead to the death of the deportees, with the total number of deaths
reaching 1.5 million.

The date of the onset of the genocide is conventionally held to be
April 24, 1915, the day that Ottoman authorities arrested some 250
Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in Constantinople.

Thereafter, the Ottoman military uprooted Armenians from their homes
and forced them to march for hundreds of miles, depriving them of
food and water, to the desert of what is now Syria.

To date, twenty countries and 44 U.S. states have officially recognized
the events of the period as genocide, and most genocide scholars
and historians accept this view. The Armenian Genocide has been also
recognized by influential media including The New York Times, BBC,
The Washington Post and The Associated Press.

The majority of Armenian Diaspora communities were formed by the
Genocide survivors.

The Armenian Genocide resolution (H.Res. 106) was submitted to the
House of Representatives by Representative Adam Schiff (D-CA), on
January 30, 2007, during the 110th United States Congress. It was
a non-binding resolution calling upon the US President to ensure
that the foreign policy of the United States reflects appropriate
understanding and sensitivity concerning issues related to human
rights, ethnic cleansing, and genocide documented in the United States
record relating to the Armenian Genocide, and for other purposes. Upon
its introduction it was referred to United States House Committee
on Foreign Affairs where it passed a 27-21 vote and was sent back
for a full house vote. On October 26, 2007, in a letter addressed
to the House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, four key sponsors of the bill,
requested a debate on the bill in full House to be postponed.

In 2009, another congressional resolution affirming the U.S. record
on the Armenian Genocide (H.Res.252) was been formally introduced
in the U.S. House of Representatives by Reps. Adam Schiff (D.-CA),
George Radanovich (R.-CA), Frank Pallone, Jr. (D.-NJ), and Mark Kirk
(R.-Ill). It currently has 134 co-sponsors.