Politico
March 5 2010
Who dropped the ball on Armenia resolution?
Did the administration drop the ball on the Armenia genocide
resolution? The non-binding resolution calling the killing of up to a
1.5 million Armenians in 1915 Ottoman Turkey genocide, narrowly passed
the House Foreign Affairs Committee yesterday in a vote of 23-22,
Marin Cogan reported, prompting Ankara to recall its ambassador to
Washington for consultations.
Hill staffers and Democratic foreign policy hands say neither the
White House nor State tried to stop Rep. Howard Berman (D-Cal.),
chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, from proceeding with
the committee mark-up of the nonbinding resolution until the night
before it was scheduled. This though Berman had publicly announced the
intention to schedule the mark-up over a month before. Committee aides
"said there had been no pressure against the resolution from the White
House," the AP reported last month.
Berman `announced way in advance he was’ scheduling this, one
Washington Democratic foreign policy hand said. `They are basically
asking `Please stop me.’ And they did not hear a word from the
administration, I am being told,’ until the night before.
Clinton called Berman Wednesday night from Latin America, State
Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said Thursday.
`And in that conversation, she indicated that further congressional
action could impede progress on normalization of relations,’ between
Armenia and Turkey, Crowley said. `I think the President also spoke
yesterday with [Turkish] President Gul and expressed appreciation for
his and Prime Minister Erdogan’s efforts to normalize relations
between Turkey and Armenia. And in that call, I think he continued to
press for rapid ratification of the protocols that have been worked
out between the two countries.’
`We are concerned that possible action that Congress would take would
impede the positive momentum that we see in the Turkey-Armenia
normalization process,’ Crowley said. `We’ve made that position clear
to Chairman Berman, and we’ll see what Congress does as a result.’
But the Democratic foreign policy hand said the Wednesday night
efforts were too late. Berman is `a politician. If he folds then, he
looks like a poodle.’
`My impression is that State weighed in [Wednesday] but that with the
Armenia resolution, as with all other things, White House/NSC
legislative affairs was completely asleep at the wheel,’ one Hill
staffer said. `Consequently the White House `discovered’ the problem
yesterday when call slips started finding their way to higher-ups.’
`As best I can tell, with regard to foreign policy, both White
House/NSC legislative affairs shops could shut down entirely and no
one would even notice,’ the staffer added.
The episode demonstrates the need for beefing up the NSC legislative
affairs shop, the Democratic sources said. The Democratic foreign
policy hand said it was his understanding that the NSC legislative
affairs shop in place during the Clinton administration had basically
been done away with during the George W. Bush administration, and
hadn’t been fully restaffed in the Obama NSC. Two lieutenant colonels,
including John Beaver, and a civil servant are currently fulfilling
the role in the Obama NSC. But "they’ve been under-staffed for ages
thanks to the set-up they inherited from the Bushies … that left NSC
resource-poor," a second Hill staffer said.
The Armenia genocide issue crosses domestic politics and foreign
policy lines, as a largely domestic political issue for the Armenian
American community, while a sensitive foreign policy/diplomatic issue
for Ankara.
At a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing last week, Rep. John
Boozman (R.-Ark.) asked Clinton whether U.S.-Turkey relations would be
impacted by the forthcoming Armenia genocide resolution markup. And
while Clinton suggested it was for the "Armenian and Turkish people
themselves to address the facts of their past," she did not seem to
raise the alarm over the forthcoming resolution.
Hill sources said Berman anticipated some demonstration of Turkish
diplomatic pique. In advance of the committee vote, Turkey’s new
ambassador to Washington, Namik Tan, who only arrived in Washington
less than a month ago after serving as the well regarded ambassador in
Israel, indicated to one contact that he may or may not be here in
Washington next weekend, depending on how the vote goes — a detail to
which Berman was apprised. (Through a spokesperson, Berman declined to
comment.)
Beyond the Obama administration’s efforts to help advance
reconciliation between Turkey and Armenia, the U.S. has turned to
Turkey on a number of other fronts, including Afghanistan, Middle East
peace efforts (Turkey mediated an Israel-Syria peace channel before
the Gaza war), and efforts to influence Iran. Turkey is also currently
a member of the UN Security Council, where the U.S. seeks to move a
new resolution on Iran next month.
Administration officials said at this point, the key thing in terms of
mitigating damage to the U.S.-Ankara relationship and efforts to
advance Turkey-Armenia reconcilation would be that there is no further
full Congressional action on the Armenia genocide resolution, e.g.
that it not come up for a vote in Congress.
Posted by Laura Rozen 12:18 PM
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