US Congressional
Panel Approves Armenian Genocide
Oct 10, 2007
Associated Press
A U.S. congressional panel defied President Bush on Wednesday
and approved a measure that he said would damage U.S. goals in the Middle East.
The measure that would recognize the World War I-era killings of Armenians as a
genocide had been strongly opposed by Turkey, a key NATO ally that has supported
U.S. efforts in Iraq.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee's 27-21 vote now sends the measure to the
House floor - unless the Democratic leadership reverses course and heeds Bush's
warnings.
At issue is the killing of up to 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman Turks around
the time of World War I. Turkey denies that the deaths constituted genocide,
says the toll has been inflated and insists that those killed were victims of
civil war and unrest.
Bush and other senior officials had made a last-minute push to persuade
lawmakers on the Foreign Affairs Committee to reject the measure.
``Its passage would do great harm to our relations with a key ally in NATO and
in the global war on terror,'' Bush said hours before the vote.
The Foreign Affairs Committee's Chairman, Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Calif., warned of
the potential fallout if the proposal passed. Lantos, a Hungarian-born survivor
of the Holocaust, supported a similar resolution two years ago.
``We have to weigh the desire to express our solidarity with the Armenian people
... against the risk that it could cause young men and women in the uniform of
the United States armed services to pay an even heavier price than they are
currently paying,'' Lantos said.
Turkey raised the possibility of impeding logistical and other U.S. military
traffic now using Turkish airspace.
Earlier, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates
conveyed their concerns.
Passing the measure ``at this time would be very problematic for everything we
are trying to do in the Middle East,'' Rice told reporters at the White House.
The vote comes at a tense time in the region. Turkey's government is seeking
parliamentary approval for a military operation to chase separatist Kurdish
rebels who operate from bases in northern Iraq. The move, opposed by the U.S.,
could open a new front in the most stable part of Iraq.
``I have been trying to warn the (U.S.) lawmakers not to make a historic
mistake,'' said Egemen Bagis, a close foreign policy adviser to Turkey's prime
minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Yet with the House's first order of business Wednesday, Speaker Nancy Pelosi
made clear that Turkey's position was a hard sell. She introduced the Supreme
Patriarch of all Armenians, Karekin II, to deliver the morning prayer - a daily
ritual intended to be apolitical.
``With the solemn burden of history, we remember the victims of the genocide of
the Armenians,'' Karekin said in the House. ``Give peace and justice on their
descendants.''
Gates said 70 percent of U.S. air cargo headed for Iraq goes through Turkey, as
does about one-third of the fuel used by the U.S. military in Iraq.
``Access to airfields and to the roads and so on in Turkey would very much be
put at risk if this resolution passes and Turkey reacts as strongly as we
believe they will,'' Gates said. He also said that 95 percent of new vehicles
designed to better protect against mine attacks are being flown through Turkey
to get to Iraq.
Lawmakers from both parties who supported the proposal said the moral
implications outweighed security concerns and friendship with Turkey.
``The sad truth is that the modern government of Turkey refuses to come to terms
with this genocide,'' said Rep. Chris Smith, R.-N.J. ``For Armenians everywhere,
the Turkish government's denial is a slap in the face.''
The vote comes at a tense time in the region. Turkey's government is seeking
parliamentary approval for a military operation to chase separatist Kurdish
rebels who operate from bases in northern Iraq. The move, opposed by the U.S.,
could open a new front in the most stable part of Iraq.
``I have been trying to warn the (U.S.) lawmakers not to make a historic
mistake,'' said Egemen Bagis, a close foreign policy adviser to Turkey's prime
minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Yet with the House's first order of business Wednesday, Speaker Nancy Pelosi
made clear that Turkey's position was a hard sell. She introduced the Supreme
Patriarch of all Armenians, Karekin II, to deliver the morning prayer - a daily
ritual intended to be apolitical.
``With the solemn burden of history, we remember the victims of the genocide of
the Armenians,'' Karekin said in the House. ``Give peace and justice on their
descendants.''
Pelosi spokesman Nadeam Elshami said the timing of Karekin's visit was a
coincidence. Rep. Joe Knollenberg, a Republican, had requested the leader
deliver a morning prayer earlier this year. The House chaplain arranged the
visit based on Karekin's schedule and was not aware of the committee's plans,
Elshami said.
The U.S. Embassy in Ankara warned U.S. citizens in Turkey about ``demonstrations
and other manifestations of anti-Americanism'' if the bill moved ahead. Protests
were reported Wednesday outside the embassy and the U.S. Consulate in Istanbul.
Pelosi and the second-ranking Democrat in the House, Majority Leader Steny
Hoyer, met Wednesday with Turkish Ambassador Nabi Sensoy but emerged from the
meeting unswayed. Hoyer told reporters he expects a floor vote on the measure
before the House adjourns for the year.
Hoyer said he hoped that Turkey would realize it is not a condemnation of its
current government but rather of ``another government, at another time.''
