ARMENIAN PROPOSAL’S FATE UNCERTAIN-US HOUSE SPEAKER
Bangladesh News 24 hours
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June 17 2009
WASHINGTON, Oct 17 (bdnews24.com/Reuters) – The future of a US House
resolution calling the 1915 massacre of Armenians by Ottoman Turks
genocide appeared in doubt on Wednesday after House Speaker Nancy
Pelosi said whether it would come to the floor for a vote "remains
to be seen."
Support for the resolution has eroded sharply since it was passed
by the House Foreign Affairs Committee last week. Critical Iraq war
ally Turkey warned it would damage relations with the United States
and President George W. Bush condemned it.
"Whether it will come up or not, what the action will be, remains to be
seen," Pelosi, a California Democrat, told reporters on Wednesday. She
previously had vowed it would get a vote of the full chamber sometime
this year.
Pelosi said on Wednesday she had always supported the nonbinding,
largely symbolic resolution, but she would be working with other
advocates to see what they wanted to do now.
Lawmakers from both political parties have been withdrawing their
names from the resolution in recent days in the face of criticism from
Turkey and Bush. Some key Democrats as well as Republicans oppose it.
Turkey calls the resolution insulting and rejects the Armenian
position, backed by many Western historians, that up to 1.5 million
Armenians suffered genocide at the hands of Ottoman Turks during
World War One.
The United States is highly dependent on Turkey’s Incirlik air
base. About 70 percent of the US military air cargo into Iraq transits
that base, according to the Defense Department.