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HOUSE DEBATES ARMENIAN GENOCIDE BILL
PRESS TV, Iran
Oct 3 2007
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi
Congress is expected to debate a measure to declare the alleged World
War I- era killing of Armenians by the Othman Empire as genocide.
If the resolution is approved by the relevant committee, it would be
up to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to decide whether to bring it to
the House floor for a vote. While Pelosi has previously expressed
support for recognizing the killings as genocide, it is not clear
whether she would bring the resolution to a vote.
Though the largely symbolic measure would have no binding effect on
US foreign policy, it could nonetheless damage an already strained
relationship with Turkey.
The dispute involves the alleged deaths of hundreds of thousands of
Armenians during the waning years of the Ottoman Empire. Armenian
advocates, contend the Armenians died in an organized genocide. But
the Turks say the Armenians were victims of widespread chaos and
governmental breakdown as the 600-year-old empire collapsed in the
years before Turkey was born in 1923.
Turkey argues that the US House of Representatives is the wrong
institution to arbitrate a sensitive historical dispute. It has
proposed that an international commission of experts examine Armenian
and Turkish archives.
Turkey's ambassador to Washington, Nabi Sensoy has also reiterated
that Turkey's government may have to respond should the resolution
pass, saying that "We are not in the business of threatening, but
nobody is going to win if this is passed."
PRESS TV, Iran
Oct 3 2007
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi
Congress is expected to debate a measure to declare the alleged World
War I- era killing of Armenians by the Othman Empire as genocide.
If the resolution is approved by the relevant committee, it would be
up to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to decide whether to bring it to
the House floor for a vote. While Pelosi has previously expressed
support for recognizing the killings as genocide, it is not clear
whether she would bring the resolution to a vote.
Though the largely symbolic measure would have no binding effect on
US foreign policy, it could nonetheless damage an already strained
relationship with Turkey.
The dispute involves the alleged deaths of hundreds of thousands of
Armenians during the waning years of the Ottoman Empire. Armenian
advocates, contend the Armenians died in an organized genocide. But
the Turks say the Armenians were victims of widespread chaos and
governmental breakdown as the 600-year-old empire collapsed in the
years before Turkey was born in 1923.
Turkey argues that the US House of Representatives is the wrong
institution to arbitrate a sensitive historical dispute. It has
proposed that an international commission of experts examine Armenian
and Turkish archives.
Turkey's ambassador to Washington, Nabi Sensoy has also reiterated
that Turkey's government may have to respond should the resolution
pass, saying that "We are not in the business of threatening, but
nobody is going to win if this is passed."