US CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE APPROVES ARMENIAN GENOCIDE RESOLUTION
By Dan Robinson
Voice of America
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Oct 11 2007
The House of Representatives foreign affairs committee has approved
a non-binding resolution calling the massacre of Armenians nearly a
century ago a genocide. The vote was 27 to 21. VOA’s Dan Robinson
reports from Capitol Hill, President Bush and senior officials in
his administration strongly oppose the measure, saying it will damage
relations with Turkey and set back U.S. efforts in Iraq and elsewhere
in the region.
Members of House Foreign Affairs Committee 10 Oct. 2007 Members
of Congress were subjected to two public relations campaigns, one
financed by the Turkish government, the other by Armenian-American
and other groups supporting the measure.
Turkey has long insisted that Armenians killed during World War
I and the years immediately following perished because of clashes
stemming from the breakup of the Ottoman Empire rather than from a
genocide campaign.
In full page statements published in major U.S. newspapers, the Turkish
government characterized the resolution, which would be non-binding
if Congress were to pass it, as a biased interpretation of tragedies
involving Armenians in the early 20th century.
Armenian-American groups asserted that the resolution would be an
important gesture by the U.S. Congress to recognize what they call
the fact of the Armenian genocide.
President Bush received a letter from Turkey’s president Abdullah Gul
warning of harm to bilateral relations if the resolution moves forward
in Congress, a view shared by a number of former U.S. secretaries of
state and others who appealed to Congress.
Mr. Bush used a White House statement to say that while Americans
deeply regret the tragic suffering of the Armenian people, a resolution
is not the way to address the issue.
"This resolution is not the right response to these historic mass
killings, and its passage would do great harm to our relations with
a key ally in NATO, and the global war on terror," he said.
Speaking outside the White House, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
echoed the comments, while Defense Secretary Robert Gates reflected
concerns of U.S. military commanders about a potential backlash by
Turkey affecting military supply lines.
"Passage of this resolution at this time would indeed be very
problematic for everything that we are trying to do in the Middle
East because we are very dependent on a good Turkish strategic ally
to help with our efforts" said Rice.
"They believe clearly that access to airfield and to the roads and so
on in Turkey would be very much put at risk if this resolution passes
and the Turks react as strongly as we believe they will," Gates said.
Foreign affairs panel chairman Tom Lantos, a California Democrat,
said lawmakers were faced with a difficult choice in what he called
a vote of conscience.
"We have to weigh the desire to express our solidarity with the
Armenian people and to condemn this historic nightmare through the
use of the word genocide against the risk that it could cause young
men and women in the uniform of the U.S. armed services to pay an
even heavier price than they are now paying," he said.
Republicans Dan Burton and Chris Smith, took opposite views of
the issue.
"The strongest ally in the area, and has been for over 50 years, is
Turkey, and I just don’t understand why we are going to cut our nose
off and shoot ourselves in the foot at a time when we need this ally,"
Burton said.
The issue behind the resolution today is whether any government
that denies a genocide, whether or not Congress has a responsibility
to insist that our government at the very least acknowledges it. I
believe that we do," said Smith.
There were also divisions among Democrats, such as California’s Brad
Sherman, and Florida’s Robert Wexler.
"We cannot provide genocide-denial as one of the perks of friendship
with the United States," Sherman said.
"It is clear that America can ill afford to lose the support of an
ally as important as Turkey at this critical juncture," said Wexler.
Armenian genocide resolutions have been approved by the Foreign
Affairs Committee in the past, but failed to make it to the full
House and never passed through Congress as a whole.
The current measure has strong support from Democratic House Speaker
Nancy Pelosi, who with House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer met Wednesday
with Turkey’s Ambassador to the United States.
The Democratic leaders sought to assure him that the United States
remains a strong ally of the Turkey and that the government in
Ankara should not view the resolution as a reflection of the Turkish
government or people. Congressman Lantos, meanwhile, says he will
introduce a resolution next week on U.S.-Turkish friendship.
Democratic leaders intend to bring the Armenian genocide measure to
the House floor next month, while a similar measure is pending in
the Senate.