HOUSE TO TAKE UP ARMENIAN RESOLUTION DESPITE BUSH
by Matthew Hay Brown

The Swamp – Chicago Tribune Blog, IL
/blog/2007/10/hoyer_house_will_consider_arme.html
Oct 10 2007

House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer said Democrats plan to bring an
Armenian-genocide resolution which has angered the Turkish government
to the House floor before they leave on Nov. 16 for the Thanksgiving
recess.

"I believe that our government’s position is clear: that genocide was
perpetrated against the Armenian people approximately 90 years ago
during the course of the First World War I," Hoyer told reporters. "I
believe that remembering that and noting that is important so that
we not paper over or allow the Ahmedinejads of the next decade or
decades herafter to deny the fact."

President Bush and other senior administration officials asked Congress
not to approve the resolution because the Turkish government has
indicated it might retaliate by preventing its territory to be used
for the transhipment of military and materiel vital to U.S. troops
in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Hoyer said he and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi discussed the resolution
earlier today with Nabi ªensoy, the Turkish ambassador to the United
States.

"I made it very, very clear," Hoyer said, "that I considered Turkey
a very strong and important ally [and] that I considered the Turkish
people and the Turkish government to be friends. That this was about
another government at another time and should not be perceived … as
a reflection on the present government."

Hoyer said Bush told him, when they met Sunday in Emmitsburg, Md., at
a memorial for fallen firefighters in, that he hoped the House would
not pass the legislation. Hoyer said Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice asked him last week to let the matter drop.

"For 25 years I have been told … that this is not the right time to
pass this, Hoyer said. "From the point of view of some, there would
never be a time. So it’s not a question [of] ‘this is not the right
time.’ The real issue is, ‘this is not the right thing to do.’ I
disagree with that. I think the majority of members of the House
disagree with that."

Pelosi has compared the resolution to a similar measure passed by
the House earlier this year to condemn the Japanese abuse of "comfort
women" during World War II.

"The Japanese were not pleased, but the Japanese overcame it and our
relations were not undermined," Hoyer said. "There was a temporary
blip. We would hope if there is a blip, it is temporary, and I think
our relations with Turkey and the Turkish people and the Turkish
government will remain strong and will facilitate the best interests
of both countries. … Neither country will be served by a rupture
in relations."

–Boundary_(ID_Fb6VD7TXncJUGG2zX lApMw)–