Author: Badalian Vardan

What Is Awaiting Armenian Economy?

Roza Hovhannisyan, Reporter
Comments – 04 April 2015, 18:56

The economists say the pessimistic economic forecasts of the World
Bank for Armenia are quite realistic, considering the existing
situation.

Note that the World Bank has recently forecast a zero economic growth
this year, and economic recession in case of shocks. “The World Bank
representative broke the news, saying – dear Armenian people, a very
difficult year is expected, and do take relevant measures. However,
our people have no opportunities to take such measures, those are in
the hands of the government while the government is not doing
anything,” the economist Vahagn Khachatryan said in an interview with
Lragir.am.

He recalls that prior to the World Bank’s country manager, the Central
Bank of Armenia had announced that the economic situation is causing
concerns, forecasting a 0.4-2% growth provided the negative economic
signals from the Russian economy. This forecast is based on the
dropping amount of remittances from Russia to Armenia.

Vahagn Khachatryan says remittances from Russia are down by 45%,
forecasts on the economy of this country have improved recently but
the economy is expected to contract by 3-4% this year. By the best
broadcast, a 2% growth will be expected in Russia only in 2017.

“In other words, the forecasts were made in Russia but we do not visit
them in any way. Russia revised its budget, cut government
expenditures by 17%, suspended or cut investments. Three months have
passed but we are not doing anything. Who are we waiting for? Are we
waiting for someone to come and get the economy working with a magic
stick?” he says.

According to the economist, the existing situation is similar to the
crisis year of 2009, i.e. recession, increase of poverty, rise in
unemployment, problem with tax collections. The difference between
today and 2009 is then it was possible to borrow to reduce social
tension. Today we cannot boost the national debt because Armenia is
already close to the red line.

“This situation was visible after the second half of 2014 when
negative tendencies were noticed,” the economist notes. He believes
that aside from external factors, there are also internal problems,”
the economist says. Having boosted the foreign debt since 2009, we
have not achieved economic success. I still cannot understand the
direction of development of our economy, he notes. Armenia went
through different terminologies, including economic diversification,
becoming a world financial center, tourism center, but no clarity
ever. Armenia has arrived at this by resolving situational problems.

“At this point the second problem has occurred – the state of the
Russian economy. We depend on the Russian economy, only remittances
are enough. The World Bank noted that Armenia is in top ten by a high
ratio to remittances to the GDP. Remittances are 21% of our GDP. In
other words, it was clear that if the situation in Russia got worse,
our economy would appear in a far more difficult situation,” he
underlined.

Vahagn Khachatryan says the issue of monopolies is pending since 2009.
In 2012 the World Bank carried out a serious study. However, the
government never admits that there are monopolies in Armenia or
considers it normal, explaining that the Armenian economy is too
small. However, according to the economist, it is not a true judgment
because the size of the economy has nothing to do with monopolies.

“In other words, the problems were not resolved, and we faced shortage
of financial flows, limitations to the national debt,” he notes.

The economist Vardan Bostanjyan also believes that the World Bank’s
forecast will be realistic.

“In fact, at the moment the economic activity, movement and relations
in Armenia do not let hope for having something like growth,”
Bostanjyan says.

According to him, in economic collapse economic growth is not
possible. The Armenian government is not undertaking urgent measures,
which Vardan Bostanjyan interprets in the following way: “In our
system of governance I cannot see efforts by any branch of power. Most
probably, the system is such that the branches of the government are
deprived of initiatives.”

There is one solution to the existing situation – govern the country,
don’t let it unattended.

World Bulletin, Turkey
April 5 2015

American Turks launch new campaign over 1915 events

The “Let History Decide” campaign in the U.S. will counter Armenian
allegations over the events of 1915 involving the Ottoman Empire
during World War I.

World Bulletin / News Desk

American Turks have launched the “Let History Decide” campaign in the
U.S. to counter Armenian allegations over the events of 1915 involving
the Ottoman Empire during World War I.

The campaign has been organized by the Turkish American Steering
Committee, which consists of 145 Turkish American organizations.
Several events have been planned under the campaign that will take
place in different parts of the U.S., including Washington DC, New
York and Texas.

The main slogan of the campaign is: “Unite us, not divide us.”
According to the Turkish American Steering Committee’s website, a
peace and solidarity walk is being organized on April 24 in Washington
DC, which will begin in front of the White House and end at the
Turkish Embassy.

After the walk, American Turks and their campaign supporters will
remain in front of the embassy in response to the Armenian groups, who
too gather there on April 24 each year to “occupy the sidewalk,” a
committee representative says.

The committee has said it will also launch a Twitter hashtag
#lethistorydecide on April 18.

Turkish citizens at home and abroad feel that smear campaigns
involving the 1915 events have turned into attacks against Turkey.

In early March when a group of Congressmen introduced the “Armenian
Genocide Truth and Justice Resolution”, Republican Congressman Curt
Clawson called President Barack Obama to form a committee to reconcile
Turkish-Armenian relations and seek support for his resolution in
Congress.

“Turkey and Armenia are very important to the American interests,”
Clawson wrote in a letter to House colleagues. “U.S interests (in the
region) can be advanced by both countries acting to cultivate peace
and understanding.”

– 1915 events

The 1915 events took place during World War I when a portion of the
Armenian population living in the Ottoman Empire sided with the
invading Russians and revolted against the empire.

A decision by the Ottoman Empire to relocate Armenians in eastern
Anatolia followed the revolts and there were some Armenian casualties
during the relocation process.

Armenia has demanded an apology and compensation, while Turkey
officially refutes Armenian allegations over the incidents, saying
that, although Armenians died during relocations, many Turks also lost
their lives in attacks carried out by Armenian gangs in Anatolia.

The debate and differing opinions between present day Turkish
government and the Armenian diaspora, along with the current
administration in Yerevan, still generates political tension between
Turks and Armenians.

– Turkey’s position

Ankara acknowledges that past experiences were a great tragedy and
that both parties suffered heavy casualties, including hundreds of
Muslim Turks.

Turkey also agrees that there were certainly Armenian casualties
during World War I.

In January, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan sent invitation
letters to more than 100 leaders, including Armenian President Serzh
Sargsyan, to participate in the commemoration of the Battle of
Canakkale on April 24.

Sargsyan reportedly denounced Erdogan’s invitation as a
“short-sighted” attempt to overshadow the 100th anniversary of the
1915 events, according to armenianow.com.

Marseille
Le magazine de Radio dialogue

Le Magazine du Festival ” #RCFRADIODIALOGUE de Richard Fyindykian :
avec Samuel Lieven, journaliste au quotidien La Croix pour > codirigé par Mgr
Jean-Michel Di Falco Léandri chez XO Editions, Garo Hovsépian,
Président de la Maison Arménienne de la Jeunesse et de la Culture,
2015 Année du Centenaire du Génocide arménien et Françoise Rossi pour
le livre qu’elle publie chez L’Harmattan

US RESOLUTION SEEKS TO RESOLVE TURKEY-ARMENIA RELATIONS VOID OF GENOCIDE CLAIMS

Daily Sabah, Turkey
April 3 2015

AYÃ…~^E Ã…~^AHIN
ISTANBUL

A U.S. lawmaker plans to introduce a bill asking the administration
of President Barack Obama to designate a task force to pursue the
amelioration of sour relations between Turkey and Armenia based on
the common interests of the two countries. The proposed bill was
mentioned by its sponsor, Republican Congressman Carl Clawson, on
Thursday. It represents a landmark step since it signifies the first
concrete move that is not detrimental to Turkey regarding the 1915
incidents, ahead of its centennial commemoration.

It is the first time such a draft bill, which aims to be constructive
for Turkish-Armenian relations, has been proposed. It is significant
since it differs in language to the bill currently in committee, which
“Call[s] on the president to work toward equitable, constructive,
stable and durable Armenian-Turkish relations based upon the Republic
of Turkey’s full acknowledgment of the facts and ongoing consequences
of the Armenian Genocide, and a fair, just, and comprehensive
international resolution of this crime against humanity.” The new
bill, which has yet to be introduced, has been prepared in deference
to Turkey and its definition of the 1915 incidents, which has long
been used as a means for the Armenian diaspora to generate political
tension against Turkey. The proposed bill has been stripped of any
mention of the Armenian genocide, highlighting its restraint from
taking sides in a matter that has become overly politicized.

Turkish-Armenian relations have remained strained for decades due to
Armenia’s constant demand for Turkey, as well as other countries,
to officially accept the mass forced deportations of Armenians to
Anatolia during World War I as genocide. The latest in a series of
such demands from the U.S government came when a bipartisan group
of congressmen introduced an Armenian-lobby-backed Armenian Genocide
Truth and Justice Resolution in mid-March. Republican Adam Schiff said
that the draft resolution, if passed by Congress, would officially
recognize the Armenian genocide and call upon Obama to work with the
Turkish and Armenian governments to bring about reconciliation based
on full acknowledgment of the historic fact of the Armenian genocide.

However, the Obama administration, which had pledged to acknowledge
the incidents as genocide before he was elected, refrained from doing
so during his term for fear of falling out with Turkey, a close ally
of the U.S.

Clawson, in a letter he wrote to garner the support of congressmen,
recalled that Turkey, a NATO member, had supported the West in its
victory in the Cold War by allowing use of its military bases.

“Turkey and Armenia are very important to American interests,”
Clawson wrote in a letter to House colleagues in a bid to muster
support for his resolution that seeks to find a settlement between
the two countries. “U.S interests [in the region] can be enhanced by
both countries acting to cultivate peace and understanding.”

Clawson also said that the U.S has been attempting to enhance ties
between the two countries since 2009, but has thus far failed to do
so. He also added that Turkey, given its geographical location, is
a significant partner in the fight against extremism, a partnership
that is growing particularly valuable given deepening relations of the
countries in the region with Iran and Russia, which are diminishing
U.S power there.

Derya TaÅ~_kın, president of the New York-based Turkish Institute
for Progress, has said the move is historic for being unprecedented,
adding that the Turkish Institute for Progress is also working to help
thaw Turkish-Armenian relations. She also said Clawson has underscored
the necessity of pondering the next hundred years instead of the past
to mend Turkey-Armenia relations.

Turkish officials have been exerting considerable efforts to improve
relations with Armenia by reinstating rights and confiscated property
that had been taken from them since the founding of the Republic,
after decades of apathy. Steps have also been taken to provide them
with representation in Parliament.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also made an attempt to thaw tensions
between the two countries by issuing a message ahead of the 99th year
commemoration of the 1915 incidents last year. In an unprecedented
move, while he was prime minister, Erdogan extended condolences to
the grandchildren of Armenians who lost their lives in the 1915 events.

However Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan, in a purported refusal to
reconcile with Turkey, said he had withdrawn the peace accords with
Turkey from parliament.

The two countries’ then foreign ministers, Ahmet Davutoglu and Eduard
Nalbandyan, had signed protocols to establish diplomatic ties between
their respective countries in 2009 in Switzerland. Mediated by the
U.S., the protocol had presupposed the opening of the border between
Turkey and Armenia, but it was failed to be ratified.

Following the incident, Erdogan complained that Armenia had failed to
reciprocate Turkish peace efforts, but said that Ankara will still
pursue a settlement with Armenia. Foreign Ministry Spokesman Tanju
Bilgic also said: “Turkey will remain committed to the normalization
process it pursues as the main purpose of the protocols.”

The official Turkish government stance on the claims of genocide is
that it acknowledges that a tragedy occurred with great suffering on
the part of the Armenians, but that Muslim Turks also suffered during
the event. They have repeatedly called on Armenia to check unbiased
historical sources to bring the matter to light.

BAKU UNDERTAKES RANGER RAID IN KARABAKH-AZERBAIJAN CONTACT LINE – DEFENSE MINISTRY

STEPANAKERT, April 3. /ARKA/. Azerbaijani troops undertook a ranger
raid in the southern section of Karabakh-Azerbaijan contact line
Thursday night with using a mine-clearance devise, the press office
of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic’s defense ministry reports.

The ministry says that thanks to the professional measures taken by
Karabakh servicemen, the raiders were thrown back with losses. Details
of the incident are being investigated.

The Karabakh side sustained no losses. Karabakh conflict broke out
in 1988 when Karabakh, mainly populated by Armenians, declared its
independence from Azerbaijan.

On December 10, 1991, a few days after the collapse of the Soviet
Union, a referendum took place in Nagorno-Karabakh, and the majority
of the population (99.89%) voted for secession from Azerbaijan.

Afterwards, large-scale military operations began. As a result,
Azerbaijan lost control over Nagorno-Karabakh and the seven regions
adjacent to it.

Some 30,000 people were killed in this war and about one million
people fled their homes.

On May 12, 1994, the Bishkek cease-fire agreement put an end to the
military operations.

Since 1992, talks brokered by OSCE Minsk Group are being held over
peaceful settlement of the conflict. The group is co-chaired by USA,
Russia and France. —–0—

TEXT OF FRENCH LAW WAS COPIED FROM WIKIPEDIA

The Times (London)
April 2, 2015 Thursday

by Charles Bremner

A French MP has admitted that she tabled a parliamentary bill with a
preamble largely pasted from Wikipedia. Valerie Boyer, 52, copied text
from the free internet encyclopedia setting out reasons why France
should officially recognise the 1915 Assyrian genocide. Wikipedia
describes it as “the mass slaughter of the Assyrian population of the
Ottoman Empire during the First World War” and blames it on the Turks.

The text, published in the official parliamentary journal, retained
Wikipedia’s index numbers and hyperlinks, although these were later
removed.

Ms Boyer, the Union for a Popular Movement MP for Marseilles,
acknowledged using copied text but insisted on BFM TV, a news channel,
that she “had the extract verified by specialised teachers”.

She was the author of a 2011 bill making denial of the Armenian
genocide by Turkey a criminal offence. The Assyrian massacres were
bound up with the genocide. Turkey denies responsibility.

The new bill is to be debated later this year. Discovery of the
plagiarism was mocked on social networks under the hashtag #epicfail.

CYPRUS AMENDS LAW TO CRIMINALIZE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE DENIAL

Associated Press International
April 2, 2015 Thursday 1:37 PM GMT

NICOSIA, Cyprus

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) – Cyprus’ parliament has legislated to criminalize
the denial of the massacre of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians by
Ottoman Turks a century ago.

Parliamentary speaker Yiannakis Omirou says that through a unanimous
vote, lawmakers can make denial of any historically proven massacre
a crime.

Omirou said after a meeting with his Armenian counterpart Thursday
that Cyprus was the first country to raise the issue of recognizing
the Armenian genocide at the U.N. General Assembly in 1965. The event
is widely viewed by scholars as the first genocide of the 20th century.

Turkey however, denies that the deaths constituted genocide, saying
the toll has been inflated, and that those killed were victims of
civil war and unrest.

Armenians mark the centenary of the killings on April 24.

‘ORHAN’S INHERITANCE’ DIGS THROUGH HISTORY TO REVEAL FAMILY SECRETS

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
April 3 2015

By Elfrieda Abbe

As a taxi takes Orhan Turkoglu through the barren Anatolian countryside
where the “land is heavy, the atmosphere so pressed it makes it hard
to breathe,” his mind wanders. He’s on his way to Karod, his childhood
home, to pay his last respects to his beloved grandfather Kemal.

A Turkish businessman living in Istanbul, he’s not eager to return
to this provincial outpost where “every person, object, and stone has
some sort of covering, a layer of protection made from cloth, brick,
or dust.”

“Men and women cover their heads with skullcaps and head scarves.”

They also apply this protection to their speech and ideas, he surmises.

Much has been covered up in Aline Ohanesian’s impressive debut
novel,”Orhan’s Inheritance.” She scrapes away the dusty layers with
the skill of an archaeologist on a dig to reveal family secrets and
shames set against a backdrop of historical atrocities.

The family is stunned when Kemal leaves their home to an Armenian
woman, Seda Melkonian, who lives in Los Angeles. Orhan goes on a
mission to persuade her to sell the house back to him for his father
and aunt.

A modern man who is distanced from historical events, he’s unprepared
for the disdain with which he is treated at the Armenian retirement
home where Seda lives.

In her late 80s, Seda doesn’t want the house that once belonged to
her happy family or the painful memories that come with it. She agrees
to sign the papers, if he will leave her alone. But Orhan insists on
finding out her connection to his dede.

“The woman before him is like an ancient tapestry whose tightly woven
threads could tell quite a tale, if only he knew how to unravel them.”

He realizes the loose thread that will free the story is his
grandfather’s sketchbook. When she see’s Kamel’s drawing of the
mulberry tree that stood in her family’s yard, she cannot stop the
words from pouring out.

It’s 1915. The Ottoman Empire has Germany in World War I, and Armenians
are viewed as an internal threat. One day her uncle is taken away,
then her father.

Soon all Armenians are “deported,” ordered to leave their homes with
only a few possessions. Seda’s childhood friend Kemal, a talented
Muslim teenager who worked for her father, tries to save the headstrong
15-year-old, but she refuses to leave her family. What happens on
that deadly march is Seda’s story.

A melancholy past hangs over the characters. Seda survives, but not
without great loss and the pain of guilt.

Kemal becomes a sharpshooter in the military and returns a hero. He
builds a multinational textile company on what the Melkonians left
behind, but takes no pleasure in money and is haunted by the memory
of Seda. It’s for the reader to find out what happens when he meets
Seda again.

Through his photography and education, Orhan escapes the brutality
of his father’s beatings. But the very thing he loves leads to his
arrest and torture when one of his photos raises suspicion that he
is a communist.

Auntie Fatma, the rock of the family, who raised both Orhan and his
father, has a shadowy past.

Such sorrow in Ohanesian’s hands is not a heavy burden for the reader.

Through the beauty and humanity of her central characters, the story
transcends suffering. While Orhan inherited his family’s business,
he learns his real inheritance is his grandfather’s compassion,
acts of kindness and generosity.

“A white day sheds light; a dark day sheds darkness,” Orhan tells
Seda on his first visit. Ohanesian’s novel is that “white day.”

CYPRUS CRIMINALIZES DENIAL OF 1915 ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

Big News Network, Australia
April 3 2015

VoA – News Thursday 2nd April, 2015

NICOSIA – Cyprus on Thursday made it a crime to deny that Ottoman
Turks committed genocide against Armenian Turks a century ago, a move
likely to rile its old rival Turkey as peace talks on the ethnically
split island remain stalled.

The Cypriot parliament passed a resolution penalizing denial of
genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, modifying existing
legislation, which required prior conviction by an international
court to make denial a crime.

“Today is a historic day,” said Yiannakis Omirou, parliament speaker.

“It allows parliament to restore, with unanimous decisions and
resolutions, historical truths.”

The east Mediterranean island, split in a Turkish invasion in 1974
after a brief Greek-inspired coup, was one of the first countries
worldwide in 1975 to recognize the Armenian killings as genocide. It
is commemorated on April 24.

The nature and scale of the killings remain highly contentious. Turkey
accepts that many Armenians died in partisan fighting beginning in
1915, but denies that up to 1.5 million were killed and that this
constituted an act of genocide, a term used by many Western historians
and foreign parliaments.

In a statement, Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Tanju Bilgic
said the Cypriot resolution was “null and void to us and not worthy
of comment.”

“Those who have tried to exploit the events of 1915 at every
opportunity by using base political calculations have not been able to
achieve any result until now and won’t do so in the future,” he added.

Armenia accuses the Ottoman authorities at the time of systematically
massacring large numbers of Armenians and deporting many more,
including women, children, the elderly and infirm, in terrible
conditions on so-called death marches.

The issue has long been a source of tension between Turkey and
several Western countries, especially the United States and France,
both home to large ethnic Armenian diasporas. Cyprus, too, has an
Armenian population.

Cyprus has been at loggerheads with Turkey for decades. Its ethnic
Greek and Turkish Cypriot populations have lived estranged in the
south and north respectively since 1974. Seeds of division were sown
earlier when a power-sharing government crumbled amid violence in 1963.

Thursday’s resolution was passed by Greek Cypriot lawmakers, who now
make up the island’s only internationally recognized parliament.

PROPOSED BILL CALLS FOR RECONCILIATION BETWEEN TURKEY AND ARMENIA

Wall Street Journal
April 3 2015

By Byron Tau

WASHINGTON–Bringing a new approach to a long-running Capitol Hill
standoff, a Turkish-American coalition is pushing a new bill in
Congress that will call for reconciliation and dialogue between Turkey
and Armenia while sidestepping the question of whether the 1915 mass
killing of Armenians at the hands of the Ottoman Empire was genocide.

Armenian and Armenian-American advocacy groups have long pressed the
U.S. government to officially call the killings genocide, while the
Turks have fought hard against such proposals in the U.S. and abroad.

The issue has been debated in Congress for years, without a resolution,
and the new bill may run into similar difficulties.

The new proposal, to be introduced by Rep. Curt Clawson (R., Fla.),
will call on President Barack Obama to “work toward equitable,
constructive, stable, and durable Armenian-Turkish relations” by
establishing a new presidential task force aimed at rapprochement.

This year marks the 100th year anniversary of the massacres–giving
advocates and lobbyists renewed ammunition in the battle between
the two countries over how the mass killings are remembered and
commemorated by historians and governments.

The historical consensus is that as many as 1.5 million Armenians
were killed by the Ottoman Empire in what is now Turkey. Turkey says
the issue of whether the killings were genocide isn’t for modern-day
governments to decide, contests the number of deaths and argues those
killed were casualties of a larger armed conflict.

The bill, which is being pushed by a new advocacy group called the
Turkish Institute for Progress, aims to be a counterweight and a
potential alternative to another controversial piece of legislation
that would call the 1915 killings a genocide. The proposal has existed
in some form for years.

The Turkish-American coalition has retained the lobbying firm Levick
Strategic Communications to push the reconciliation proposal as a
possible alternative to the genocide bill.

“What we’ve seen year after year for over a decade is Armenia focused
on a resolution that is divisive and causes rancor,” said Connie Mack,
a former Republican member of Congress and a lobbyist for Levick.

This new effort is “about moving forward. It’s about the next 100
years,” said Mr. Mack. The institute isn’t lobbying for or against the
separate genocide resolution and doesn’t have an official position
on it. The rapprochement bill and the genocide bill aren’t mutually
exclusive and members could, in theory, sponsor both, he said.

The reconciliation proposal is already drawing a furious reaction
from Armenian-American groups, who are a powerful and well-organized
lobbying force across the country.

“Congressman Clawson’s measure is Orwellian. He strips out any
mention of the Armenian genocide from a resolution that deals
with Turkish-Armenian relations — which is both unprincipled and
impractical,” said Aram Hamparian, the executive director Armenian
National Committee of America. “The genocide issue stands at the very
center of Turkish-Armenian relations.”

“U.S. interests can be advanced by both countries acting to cultivate
peace and understanding,” said Mr. Clawson, the bill’s sponsor,
in a letter to fellow members of Congress seeking support.

Rep. Adam Schiff, a California Democrat and one of the most
vocal members of Congress on the issue, likened the proposal for
a reconciliation commission to setting up a presidential panel to
debate whether the Holocaust occurred.

“That might be something that Holocaust deniers would applaud, but it
suggests that there’s a credible case to be made that the Holocaust
didn’t happen. There is no credible case that to be made that the
Holocaust didn’t happen and there’s no credible case to be made that
the Armenian genocide didn’t happen,” Mr. Schiff said.

Mr. Schiff and a bipartisan slate of lawmakers reintroduced their
genocide resolution last month with about 40 sponsors. That is down
sharply from the more than 200 lawmakers who signed on to the bill
in 2007.

In 2007, with Democrats in control of Congress, the genocide
bill cleared the House Foreign Affairs Committee before falling
victim to a lobbying campaign by both Turkey and the George W. Bush
administration. The Bush administration and lawmakers of both parties
at the time feared the diplomatic repercussions of alienating Turkey,
a strategic U.S. ally in the Middle East.

Those concerns persist today about the proposal labeling the massacres
a genocide.

“Undertaking this course of action would not only be morally
shortsighted but it would alienate one of our last allies in the
region who is working hand-in-hand with U.S. soldiers and our allies
to combat ISIS and give refuge to hundreds of thousands of innocent
refugees from the Syrian Civil War,” wrote Rep. Bill Shuster in a
letter to colleagues this year.

The Turkish Institute for Progress was formed earlier this year. The
Institute says it has no connection to the Turkish government and
its lobbyists at Levick aren’t registered under provisions governing
representatives of foreign governments.

“TIP is currently supported by a number of American businesses
and independent donors seeking a more progressive solution to mend
Armenian and Turkish relations,” Derya Taskin, the group’s president,
said in a statement. The group declined to name the business or donors
supporting it, citing fear of retaliation.

The Turkish government–which couldn’t not be reached for comment
through the embassy–has a number of prominent Washington lobbyists
on its payroll. The country has the firms of both former Democratic
House Majority Leader Dick Gephardt and former Republican House Speaker
Dennis Hastert on retainer. Turkey last month re-signed another $1.7
million contract with Mr. Gephardt’s firm.

The White House declined to take a position on legislation that is
still being drafted and has yet to be officially introduced.

As a candidate, Mr. Obama promised to use the word “genocide” as
president to describe the mass killings and said the evidence was
“undeniable.” But since he took office, he’s avoided the term,
calling the events “atrocities.”