ARMENIAN GENOCIDE BILL FALTERS IN HOUSE
Larry Lipman, Cox News Service
News & Observer, NC
Oct 18 2007
WASHINGTON – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Wednesday that a vote on
a resolution labeling the World War I-era deaths of about 1.5 million
Armenians as genocide was in doubt after key Democrats said it would
harm U.S. relations with Turkey.
"Whether it will come up or not, or what the action will be, remains
to be seen," Pelosi, D-Calif., told reporters.
The speaker made her comments after a news conference organized
by Rep. Alcee Hastings of Florida, who serves as chairman of the
Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe.
"If this resolution is enacted, our relationship with Turkey, a key
NATO ally, will be severely jeopardized," Hastings said.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee voted 27-21 this month for the
resolution. It has been offered repeatedly over the past two decades
but this year has the strong support of Pelosi.
Since the committee’s vote, Turkey has recalled its ambassador to
the United States and warned that passage of the resolution by the
full House would damage relations at a time when the United States
is highly dependent on Turkey’s cooperation in fighting the Iraq war.
President Bush, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, eight of her
predecessors and three former secretaries of defense have also urged
Pelosi not to move forward with the resolution.
Turkey’s geopolitical value
At the news conference, Hastings noted that more than half of the
supplies for U.S. troops in Iran and Afghanistan move through air
bases in Turkey and could be jeopardized by the resolution.
"Turkey is a moderate, Muslim nation with a secular democracy, and it
is geographically straddling the bridge between East and West at a time
of great turmoil and uncertainty for countries in the region," he said.
Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Fla., the co-chairman of the Congressional
Turkey Caucus, said, "What we are asking is our own leadership to do
what is right for the American national and strategic interest."
"This is an extremely difficult issue," Wexler said. "All of us feel
extraordinary sympathy with the plight and the catastrophic death
that the Armenian community suffered in the World War I period, but
our responsibility — the bottom line — is to do what is right for
our national security and to take care of the security and well-being
of our troops."
It is widely accepted that as many as 1.5 million Armenians were
killed over several years beginning in 1915.
But Turkey argues that the number was closer to 600,000 and blames
turmoil and civil war as its predecessor, the Ottoman Empire,
collapsed.
Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., a close Pelosi ally in the House, said he
has been fighting similar resolutions regarding the Armenian massacres
since 1987.
"This happened 100 years ago," Murtha said. "We have to deal with
today’s world. We need allies if we are going to win this [Iraq]
war, and this is not a way to help us in an area where we have very
few allies."
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