Calcutta Tube, India
March 5 2010

Killing of Armenians in WW-I a `genocide’: US house panel

Posted by Ankan Basu in Americas

Washington, March 5 (DPA) A US congressional committee Thursday passed
a resolution declaring that the World War I-era slayings of more than
1 million Armenians by the Ottomans was a genocide, a move opposed by
the White House and sure to anger Turkey.

The Foreign Affairs Committee approved the resolution with a narrow
23-22 vote, but it remained questionable whether it will be taken to
the floor for a full vote in the House of Representatives.

As in the past, Turkey warned that the resolution could harm relations
between Washington and Ankara, a key NATO ally in the region, and has
not ruled out recalling its ambassador ` as it did in 2007 when the
same committee approved a similar measure.

Armenian Americans have been lobbying hard to pressure President
Barack Obama to follow through on a campaign promise by applying the
term genocide to the massacre. But he has yet to do so, saying only
that there should be a `full, frank and just acknowledgment of the
facts’.

Obama’s administration has opposed the House resolution, saying it
could disrupt ongoing reconciliation talks between Turkey and Armenia,
which are strongly backed by the US.

`We’ve pressed hard to see the progress that we’ve seen to date, and
we certainly do not want to see that jeopardised,’ US State Department
spokesman PJ Crowley said Thursday.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton telephoned the Democratic
chairman of the committee, Howard Berman, to state the
administration’s opposition to the resolution, Crowley said. Obama
called Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan Wednesday.

Turkey is vital to US interest in the region. The US uses bases in
Turkey to support military operations in Iraq, and Ankara has been
playing a mediating role in Middle East peace. Washington also needs
Turkey’s backing for tough measures on Iran over its nuclear
activities.

Then president George W Bush successfully pressured the House in 2007
to not bring that resolution to a vote. Turkey had already removed its
ambassador and threatened a further deterioration of relations if the
measure reached final passage.

Ankara warned Thursday that this could again damage relations and had
already sent representatives to Washington to lobby against the
resolution.

`Turkish-US relations are experiencing their most successful period in
history,’ Erdogan said earlier this week. `I hope that they will not
be damaged by such initiatives.’

Armenians contend that 1.5 million of their own were systematically
killed by the Ottoman Turks in 1915. Turkey maintains the death toll
was much lower and resulted from violent upheaval, not an effort to
eliminate the Armenian population.

US lawmakers with a large number of ethnic Armenians in their
districts, particularly in California, are among the biggest backers
of the genocide resolution.

The speaker of the House, Obama ally Nancy Pelosi, has not said
whether she will bring the resolution up for a full vote.

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From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress