US SENATE COMMITTEE PASSES WATERED DOWN VERSION OF TURKISH RESOLUTION
NTV MSNBC, Turkey
March 29 2007
Having been approved by the committee, the resolution has been sent
to the Senate, though no date has been set for it to be discussed.
WASHINGTON – The US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations voted late
Wednesday a to pass a watered down version of a resolution condemning
the murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink that removed a
direct reference to the so-called Armenian genocide.
The original wording of the resolution, as submitted by committee
member Senator Joseph Biden, read, a "legal procedure was carried
out against Hrant Dink within the scope of Article 301 as he talked
about the Armenian genocide".
However, this was amended in the final version of the text to read,
"a legal procedure was initiated against Dink within the scope of
Article 301 as he defined the Armenian massacre as genocide".
The resolution also called on Turkey to remove article 301, which
covers the crime of insulting Turkish identity, from the statute
books, and to establish diplomatic, political and commercial relations
with Armenia.
Turkey rejects claims that the Ottoman Empire committed an act of
genocide against its Armenian citizens during the years of the First
World War, though acknowledges that up to 300,000 Armenian civilians
may have died during the turmoil of the war in the east of the country.
Turkey also says that up to 500,000 Turkish civilians died in the
chaos of war.