IATANBUL: ‘Armenian genocide’ resolution shelved, as US Senate reces

Hurriyet Daily News, Turkey
April 12 2014

‘Armenian genocide’ resolution shelved, as US Senate recesses

Tolga TanıÅ? / WASHINGTON

A resolution that recognizes the 1915-16 killings of Ottoman Armenians
as a genocide, which passed at the U.S. Senate’s Foreign Relations
Committee on April 10 by bipartisan vote, has failed to reach the
floor.

Bob Menendez, a Democrat from New Jersey who chairs the Foreign
Relations Committee, and Mark Kirk, a Republican from Illinois, had
presented the bill last week.

Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their forebears were killed in 1915
and 1916 by the forces of Ottoman Empire.

Turkey disputes the figure, arguing that only 500,000 died, and denies
this was genocide, ascribing the toll to fighting and starvation
during World War I.

Having passed the 18-member committee with 12 ayes and 5 nays, the
bill was not put on the agenda for a 100-member floor vote on April
11, the last working day before a two-week Easter recess.

The bill, S.RES.410, has already become obselete, as Congress will
return from recess on April 28. The first article of the bill calls
“to remember and observe the anniversary of the Armenian Genocide on
April 24, 2014.”

The Turkish Foreign Ministry had warned the U.S. Congress not to `harm
bilateral ties’ between the two countries by carrying the resolution
to the legislative agenda.
`It’s important that the U.S. Congress does not carry this resolution
or similar ones to the legislative agenda, but rather makes efforts to
reinforce our historical alliance and partnership, which have an
importance more than ever in the current conjuncture, instead of
harming bilateral relations with non-constructive initiatives,’ the
ministry’s statement released on April 11 said.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress