U.S.-TURKEY: AMERICAN LAWMAKERS TO VOTE ON ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
AKI, Italy
Feb 21 2007
Washington, 20 Feb. (AKI/DAWN) – The speaker of the US House of
Representatives Nancy Pelosi has scheduled a vote in April on a
resolution that accuses Turkey’s Ottoman Empire of perpetrating
"genocide" resulting in the death or displacement of nearly 2 million
Armenians between 1915 and 1923. Turkey is one of America’s closest
allies in the Islamic world and is also a member of the North Atlantic
Treaty Organisation.
Turkish-Americans have launched a campaign against the resolution
saying that it ignores most experts on the Ottoman Empire who reject
the Armenian allegation of genocide. They say that the resolution is
an attempt to pass judgment on a controversial piece of history and
it unfairly defames an entire people on discredited evidence.
They point out that the US State Department openly supported Turkey’s
2005 proposal to Armenia to establish a joint commission to research
and sort out this matter but the resolution ignores this.
On Oct 12, 2006, the French National Assembly passed a bill that not
only endorsed the Armenian claim of genocide but also made it a crime
to deny the genocide.
Like in France, Armenian and Greek lobbies in the United States are
playing a major role in pushing for this resolution as it allows them
to settle old scores dating back to World War I.
Bush administration officials, however, look at this move with alarm
as they fear that it has the potential to damage America’s vital
foreign policy interests.
They point out that Turkey’s cooperation in stabilizing Iraq, where
upwards of 140,000 American troops are stationed, is vital. Turkey,
they say, is a US ally of long standing and for many years, it was
the only Muslim nation in the Middle East to have trade and diplomatic
relations with Israel.