October 10, 2007
House Panel Approves Armenian Genocide Measure
By BRIAN KNOWLTON
gton/10cnd-armenia.html?hp
WASHINGTON, Oct. 10 – The House Foreign Affairs Committee approved a
resolution late this afternoon that designates the killing of more than a
million Armenians during World War I as genocide, despite warnings from the
Bush administration that its passage could seriously jeopardize the delicate
relationship with Turkey.
The nonbinding resolution was approved by a vote of 27 to 21, and the House
speaker, Nancy Pelosi, is expected to forward the matter to the full House,
where more than half of its 435 members are co-sponsors.
Representative Tom Lantos of California, the committee chairman, urged his
colleagues today to approve the resolution, saying that the essential
question was not whether thousands of Armenians had died under the rule of
the Ottoman Turks, but whether the deaths – "this enormous blot on human
history," he called it – constituted genocide, a word implying an intent to
destroy a national, ethnic, racial or religious group.
But President Bush warned that the resolution would worsen Washington’s
relations with Turkey at a time of rising tensions over northern Iraq. "We
all deeply regret the tragic suffering of the Armenian people that began in
1915," Mr. Bush said in a brief statement from the White House. "But this
resolution is not the right response to these historic mass killings, and
its passage would do great harm to relations with a key ally in NATO and to
the war on terror."
Turkey has been a vital way-station for fuel and matériel shipments to
United States forces in Iraq, and the administration has spared little
effort to lobby against the resolution. The State Department secured the
signatures of the eight living former secretaries of state on a letter
opposing the resolution. And both Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates have been speaking out against it for
months.
Earlier, the Turkish president, Abdullah Gul, wrote to Mr. Bush to thank him
for his efforts opposing the resolution and to draw "attention to the
problems it would create in bilateral relations if it is accepted,"
according to a statement from Mr. Gul’s office. After the House committee’s
vote, Mr. Gul denounced the resolution, calling it "unacceptable," according
to Agence France-Presse.
Adding to the tensions are the recent Turkish preparations for a possible
invasion of northern Iraq in an effort to stop lethal incursions by armed
Kurdish militants of the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK.
The United States strongly opposes such Turkish action, fearing troubles in
what has been the most stable part of Iraq. But the Turkish government is
under heavy public pressure to act, and officials in Ankara have warned that
passage of the genocide resolution would make it harder for the government
to resist such pressure.
In the House committee debate, House lawmakers spoke of facing an "agonizing
choice." Mr. Lantos, who was born to a Jewish family in Budapest and is the
only Holocaust survivor in the House, laid out the "sobering choice" facing
lawmakers: whether to express solidarity with Armenians for their historic
losses or to offend Turkey, with "the risk that it could cause young men and
women in the uniform of the United States armed services to pay an even
heavier price."
"This is a vote of conscience," he said.
Some Republicans opposed the measure, although others supported it.
Representative Dan Burton of Indiana said that "stability in the entire
Middle East could be at risk," and he warned against "kicking the one ally
that’s helping us over there, in the face."
But Representative Gary L. Ackerman, Democrat of New York, argued that a
vote for the resolution was not a vote against modern-day Turkey. "Turkey is
no more the Ottoman Empire than Germany is today’s Third Reich," he said.
Turkey has acknowledged Armenian deaths over a period of several years
beginning in 1915, as the Ottoman Republic was falling apart, but it
vehemently rejects any effort to classify them as genocide. It says that
many Turks were also killed at the time.
Turkey has shown its willingness to react sharply to criticism on the
Armenian issue. When the French legislature called for criminal charges
against those who deny that a genocide occurred, the Turkish military cut
contacts with the French military and withdrew from some defense contracts
under negotiation.
When the resolution seemed likely to reach a vote last spring, Ms. Rice and
Mr. Gates joined in a strongly worded letter to Ms. Pelosi warning against
passage. They repeated their arguments earlier today.
"The passage of this resolution at this time would be very problematic for
everything we are trying to do in the Middle East," Ms. Rice said.
The bulk of American air cargo and about one-third of the fuel headed for
Iraq passes through Turkey, Mr. Gates said, including nearly all the newly
purchased mine-resistant vehicles.
"Access to air fields and to the roads and so on in Turkey would very much
be put at risk if this resolution passes and Turkey reacts as strongly as we
believe they will," Mr. Gates said.
The debate has left the Bush administration in a difficult position, and
officials have gone out of their way to emphasize that they are not
defending what happened. "The president recognizes annually the horrendous
suffering that ethnic Armenians endured during the final years of the
Ottoman Empire," Ms. Rice and Mr. Gates wrote in their March 7 letter.
Armenian-American groups have been rallying support for the resolution. The
Armenian National Committee of America sent e-mail messages to members today
to urge them to watch the Foreign Affairs Committee session online and phone
the offices of any "traditionally friendly member of the committee" who is
not in attendance.
Earlier in the day, hundreds of Turks marched to United States missions in
Turkey to protest the bill, The Associated Press reported. And in Ankara,
leftist protesters chanted anti-American slogans in front of the embassy,
the state-run Anatolia news agency reported.
Jack Lynch contributed reporting from New York.