WHITE HOUSE REBUFFED IN EFFORT TO KILL VOTE ON HOUSE BILL RECOGNIZING ARMENIAN GENOCIDE BY TURKS
ABC News
03/white-house-rebuffed-in-effort-to-kill-vote-on- house-bill-recognizing-armenian-genocide-by-turks. html
March 4 2010
The Obama administration asked the chairman of the House Foreign
Affairs Committee to cancel a vote scheduled for today on a bill
recognizing the Armenian genocide. The chairman of the committee, Rep.
Howard Berman, D-Calif., is going forward with the bill "mark up"
and vote regardless.
The bill, H. Res. 252, recognizes as genocide the "systematic and
deliberate annihilation of 1,500,000 Armenians" as ordered by the
Turkish government from 1915 to 1923. It’s the kind of statement
then-Sen. Obama supported; as a candidate for president, he said,
"America deserves a leader who speaks truthfully about the Armenian
Genocide and responds forcefully to all genocides. I intend to be
that President."
Turkish government officials, who are important U.S. allies, have
long objected to the description of those events as genocide.
After speaking to Turkish President Abdullah Gul on Wednesday, the
president had Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reach out to Berman.
"Secretary Clinton called Chairman Berman yesterday and in that
conversation the Secretary indicated that further Congressional action
could impede progress on normalization of relations," said National
Security Staff spokesman Mike Hammer.
The conversation took place after the president spoke with President
Gul and "expressed appreciation" for his and Turkish Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s "efforts on normalization of relations between
Turkey and Armenia."
The president also "pressed for rapid ratification of the protocols,"
Hammer said, referring to efforts at normalization between Armenia
and Turkey.
Describing himself as "very upset," Aram Hamparian, executive director
of the Armenian National Committee of America, told ABC News that
this move" represents an insult on top of injury.
The injury was the broken pledge by the president to recognize the
genocide, and he’s taken that a step further by trying to block the
Congress from doing the very thing that he pledged to do which was
recognize the genocide."
As senators, President Obama, Secretary Clinton, and Vice President
Biden had all been "very outspoken" in favor of identical legislation.
"Turkey does not get a vote or a veto in the US Congress," Hamparian
said. "The secretary shouldn’t be in the business of helping Turkey
impose its gag rule on the representatives of the American people."
During his trip to Turkey last April, the president disappointed
Hamparian and other members of the Armenian-American community who
supported his campaign by refraining from using the bold talk he made
as a candidate about the genocide.
Standing with President Gul, the president was asked about his position
that the Turks need to acknowledge the up to 1.5 million Armenians
the Ottoman Empire slaughtered around the time of World War I.
"My views are on the record and I have not changed views," Mr. Obama
said. "What I have been very encouraged by is news that under President
Gul ‘s leadership, you are seeing a series of negotiations, a process,
in place between Armenia and Turkey to resolve a whole host of
longstanding issues, including this one."
At the time, Hamparian told ABC News, "We’re profoundly disappointed.
All the more so because his statements on this in his record before
he became president nailed it in terms the facts, the practical side
and the moral dimension. He repeatedly talked about this during the
campaign, and he was really harsh on President Bush, he said it was
inexcusable that Bush refused to acknowledge that this was genocide."
The president "finds himself doing exactly the thing he so sharply
criticized the Bush administration for, which is being euphemistic
and evasive. It’s a bitter thing for Armenian-Americans who really
believed him and really worked hard."
As a senator and candidate, Mr. Obama was quite forceful on the matter
and quite disdainful of the Bush administration’s tip-toeing around
the word "genocide."
In a January 2008 letter to the Armenian Reporter, Mr. Obama said he
shared "with Armenian Americans – so many of whom are descended from
genocide survivors – a principled commitment to commemorating and
ending genocide. That starts with acknowledging the tragic instances
of genocide in world history."
In 2006, Mr. Obama noted, "I criticized the secretary of State for the
firing of U.S. Ambassador to Armenia, John Evans, after he properly
used the term ‘genocide’ to describe Turkey’s slaughter of thousands
of Armenians starting in 1915. I shared with secretary Rice my firmly
held conviction that the Armenian Genocide is not an allegation, a
personal opinion, or a point of view, but rather a widely documented
fact supported by an overwhelming body of historical evidence."
Asserted Mr. Obama, back then: "The facts are undeniable. An official
policy that calls on diplomats to distort the historical facts is an
untenable policy."
Mr. Obama also stated unequivocally that "as President I will recognize
the Armenian Genocide."
His position on the matter was so strong, the Armenian National
Committee of America had its own Obama File on Armenian Genocide
Recognition which included a Youtube clip of the President on the
campaign trail saying, "there was a genocide that did take place
against the Armenian people. It is one of these situations where we
have seen a constant denial on the part of the Turkish government."
Today Hammer reiterated that the "President’s position on the events
of 1915 is well known and his view of that history has not changed."