BACKERS OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE BILL REACH MAJORITY IN US CONGRESS
Turkish Daily News , Turkey
July 2 2007
Majority of lawmakers in the United States House of Representatives,
lower chamber of Congress, are now supporting a resolution calling
for the recognition of World War I-era killings of Armenians in the
Ottoman Empire as genocide, a U.S. Armenian group said.
The number of lawmakers cosponsoring the measure last week rose to 218
in the 435-member House, the Armenian National Committee of America
(ANCA) said in astatement over the weekend.
"We welcome the growth of Armenian genocide resolution cosponsors to
the 218 threshold," said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian. "We
look forward in the coming days and weeks to working with our chapters
and activists across the country in maintaining and expanding the
bipartisan majority in favor of the timely adoption of this human
rights legislation."
This is the first time an Armenian genocide bill’s co-sponsors have
ever reached a majority in the House, and is a worrying development
for Turkey, which has been working since early this year to prevent
the resolution’s approval.
Obtaining the support of 218 lawmakers does not automatically enable
Armenians to force a House floor vote for the resolution, but means
a psychological threshold.
Another group of at least 218 representatives signing a separate and
special petition calling for a floor vote is required to push House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi to do that, and it would be hard for the Armenians
to collect that number of signatures, because most Democrat lawmakers
would not want to confront their congressional leader in this way.
Hard times ahead for TurkeyBut Pelosi, who has so far declined to
order action on the bill, may soon feel that the measure should be
brought to a floor vote because a House majority supports it.
The resolution, originally introduced in January by Democratic
Representative Adam Schiff and Republican lawmaker George Radanovich,
is presently pending at the House’s Foreign Affairs Committee.
Analysts said the resolution would likely reach the House floor agenda
any time after early September, when Congress returns to work from
a summer recess in August.
But still this would fall behind critical parliamentary elections in
Turkey on July 22.Top Turkish officials, including Foreign Minister
Abdullah Gul, have lobbied against the measure’s passage in visits
to the U.S. capital since February.
Ankara has warned that the resolution’s approval in Congress could
hurt ties with Washington beyond repair, including a disruption of
some bilateral security arrangements.
A similar resolution is also pending in the Senate, Congress’ upper
chamber, with 31 senators out of a total of 100 backing the measure.
But the Armenians’ efforts focus on moving on the House side
first.Before last year’s congressional elections in which the Democrats
won a landslide victory, Pelosi had pledged to work for the passage
of the genocide measure. But after the elections, she has adopted a
more responsible position, Turkish diplomats said.