CNN International
March 6 2010

Official: Armenian genocide resolution unlikely to get full House vote

March 6, 2010 — Updated 2207 GMT (0607 HKT)

Washington (CNN) — A narrowly passed committee measure that
recommends the United States recognize the 1915 killings of ethnic
Armenians in Ottoman Turkey as genocide will likely not get a full
vote in the House of Representatives, according to a senior State
Department official.

The official said Friday that the State Department has an
understanding with House leadership on the issue, and, "We believe it
will stop where it is."

The measure passed 23-22 in the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Thursday.

In response, Turkey ordered its ambassador to the United States home
for "consultation," Foreign Ministry spokesman Burak Ozugergin told
CNN.

The nearly century-old issue has placed both Congress and the White
House in the middle of a political minefield, balancing moral
considerations with both domestic and international concerns.

The Obama administration had urged the House Foreign Affairs Committee
not to pass the resolution, warning it could damage U.S.-Turkish
relations and jeopardize efforts to normalize relations between Turkey
and its neighbor Armenia. The two do not share formal diplomatic
relations.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told reporters Friday that "the
Obama administration strongly opposes the resolution that was passed
by only one vote in the House committee, and we’ll work very hard to
make sure it does not go to the House floor."

State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters ahead of the
vote that the United States was concerned about the impact the vote
could potentially have on U.S.-Turkish relations. Turkey, among other
things, is considered a strong American ally and is home to a critical
U.S. air base.

Armenia’s foreign minister, Edward Nalbandian, said his country highly
appreciates the committee’s vote. "This is another proof of the
devotion of the American people to universal human values and is an
important step toward the prevention of the crimes against humanity,"
he said. The Armenian National Committee of America said the passage
of the measure shows that "Turkey doesn’t get a vote or a veto in the
U.S. Congress."

Turkish officials vehemently oppose the measure.

"Turkey is saddened by the bill that has been accepted in the Foreign
Affairs Committee today [Thursday]," Turkish Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan’s Web site said.

"We condemn this bill that accuses the Turkish nation of a crime it
has not committed. The people who support this bill have adopted a
wrong and unfair attitude, ignoring the differences of opinion of
expert historians and historical facts. The bill has been prepared
with tangible historical mistakes regarding the 1915 incidents and
with a completely subjective attitude," the statement said.

A Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman recently issued a public warning
that passage of a resolution labeling the World War I killings as
genocide "would harm U.S.-Turkish relations." Turkish officials have
also warned that passing the resolution could hurt a historic
agreement aimed at normalizing relations between Turkey and Armenia,
and efforts to reopen their long-closed border.

"It would harm the normalization process," spokesman Ozugergin said.
"And it is wrong. The substance is also wrong."

Turkey officially denies a genocide took place in the last days of the
crumbling Ottoman Empire. Ankara instead says that Muslim Turks and
Christian Armenians massacred each other on the killing fields of
World War I.

Historians have extensively documented the Ottoman military’s forced
death-march of hundreds of thousands of ethnic Armenians into the
Syrian desert in 1915. Every April 24, Armenians worldwide observe a
remembrance day for those killed.

The killings decimated the Armenian population in what is modern-day
eastern Turkey.

The government in the Armenian capital of Yerevan and influential
Armenian diaspora groups have been urging countries around the world
to formally label the events of 1915 "genocide."

"I don’t pretend to be a professional historian," Foreign Affairs
Committee Chairman Howard Berman, D-California, said ahead of
Thursday’s vote. "But the vast majority of experts … agree that the
tragic massacres of the Armenians constitute genocide."

Rep. Gary Ackerman, D-New York, acknowledged that Turkey is an
"important, strong [and] necessary ally of the United States." But
"overriding all of that," he said, "is the issue of justice and the
issue of history. … History has to be righted."

Opponents of the resolution had expressed sympathy toward the victims
of the 1915 killings, but said current political concerns took
priority.

Rep. Mike Pence, R-Indiana, praised the committee’s "sincere effort"
to illuminate "a dark chapter in history," but said the committee
should not pass the measure.

"I do not minimize the horror that took place," he said. But "now is
not the time for this committee of the American Congress to take up
the measure that is now before us."

Turkey is a strategic partner of U.S. efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan, he said.

Furthermore, the logistical support provided by the U.S. base in
Incirlik, Turkey, is a "staple" of American power in the Middle East,
he asserted. "In a time of war," the United States should not "take
the relationship [with Turkey] for granted."

Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Virginia, argued that Congress should not do
anything to undermine the Turkish government, which is a "secular
alternative model for the Muslim world."

"I hate this vote," he said. "The United States has a great deal at
stake in the Turkish relationship." Congress shouldn’t "pontificate on
this issue" and then pretend "there will be no consequences," he
warned.

Last year, the foreign ministers of Turkey and Armenia signed a series
of protocols aimed at establishing embassies in Ankara and Yerevan.
The U.S.-, European- and Russian-backed agreement also called for the
creation of an international committee of historians to examine
archives and "restore mutual confidence between the two nations."

In October 2009, Armenia’s president traveled to Turkey to attend a
historic soccer match between the two countries’ national teams.
Despite this round of "football diplomacy," the diplomatic overture
between the two capitals has slowed in recent months.

A previous resolution recognizing the Armenian "genocide" was approved
by the House Foreign Affairs Committee In 2007. The Turkish government
protested by temporarily recalling its ambassador from Washington.

The resolution did not make it to the House floor.

/us.turkey.genocide.debate/