SPEAKER OF U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES INTENDS TO CONTRIBUTE TO RECOGNITION OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE BY FULL CHAMBER
ArmInfo, Armenia
Oct 15 2007
ArmInfo. The speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives insisted
Sunday that she would bring to the full chamber a resolution condemning
the killings of Armenians nearly a century ago as genocide, even as
a Turkish general warned that this could lastingly damage a military
relationship crucial to American forces in Iraq. A House committee
Wednesday passed a nonbinding resolution declaring the killings, which
began in 1915 in the waning days of the Ottoman Empire, to be genocide,
and the speaker, Representative Nancy Pelosi, said Sunday that "I’ve
said if it passed the committee that we would bring it to the floor."
Pointing to a 20-year history of votes on the Armenian matter being
deferred by war or geopolitical considerations, she said, "There’s
never been a good time." Pelosi made other points: President Ronald
Reagan had referred to the killings as genocide; aging Armenian
survivors will soon be dead; and 23 other countries have declared
the killings genocide.
An ABC-TV interviewer put to Pelosi the tough question at the core of
the debate: What if forcing a vote on the resolution were to endanger
the security of American troops in Iraq?
"Some of the things that are harmful to our troops relate to values –
Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, torture," said the California congresswoman,
whose district includes thousands of Armenian-Americans. "Our troops
are well-served when we declare who we are as a country and increase
the respect people have for us as a nation."