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HARMAN'S FLIP-FLOP ON ARMENIAN GENOCIDE RESOLUTION ATTACKED
By Lisa Friedman, Washington Bureau
Los Angeles Daily News
http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_7131431
Oct 10 2007
CA
Jane Harman confronts critics over her alleged flip-flopping on the
Armenian Genocide resolution
WASHINGTON - With the House Committee on Foreign Affairs voting today
on declaring the massacre of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey genocide,
a Southland congresswoman is coming under fire for flip-flopping on
the emotionally charged resolution.
Although she co-sponsored it, Rep. Jane Harman last week wrote to
the chairman of the committee urging him not to bring the resolution
to a vote and declaring that she will vote against it if it reaches
the floor.
Amid shouts of "genocide denier" and "You are a hypocrite and liar,"
the El Segundo Democrat defended her letter Saturday to about 70
Armenian students who confronted her at a political rally in Lakewood.
"I am not denying it," Harman said of the World War I-era killings
that Armenians and many historians estimate at more than 1.5 million
and declare were part of a planned genocide campaign.
"I come from a community where there was genocide against my people,
too," Harman, who is Jewish, told the students. But, she said,
Turkey at the moment is "exercising a role in the Middle East that
is very important" and she didn't want to risk creating a rift with
the U.S. ally.
In the letter, she told Rep. Tom Lantos, the San Mateo Democrat who
chairs the foreign-affairs panel, that, although she sympathizes
with the sentiments in the resolution she co-sponsored, she would
vote against it because of "the timing."
The controversy comes as today's committee vote marks the first time
in recent memory that the genocide resolution stands a significant
chance of making it to the House floor. While the bill passed the
same committee when it was under Republican control two years ago,
then-speaker Dennis Hastert blocked it from going to a full House vote.
This time, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, is a co-sponsor
and she has vowed to bring it to the floor, possibly by Thanksgiving.
Meanwhile, Turkish President Abdullah Gul warned the U.S. on Tuesday
that relations between the two countries will suffer if Congress
declares the events a genocide. The Bush administration also is urging
Republican lawmakers to reject the resolution.
Turkey maintains that there was no plan for systematic extermination,
and that Armenians were killed when they joined forces with the French
and Russians to attack Turks in the chaotic aftermath of the war.
Zanku Armenian, a board member of the Armenian National Committee of
America's Western Region in Glendale, called Harman's new position
"the height of deception and hypocrisy."
Vahram Shemmassian, director of the Armenian Studies Department at
Cal State Northridge, said today's vote will be a test for how the
U.S. and its leaders stand on human rights.
"The Armenian genocide was a crime against humanity and if the
United States of America is fighting for human rights, this is a good
example of defending human rights and standing for American values,"
said Shemmassian.
By Lisa Friedman, Washington Bureau
Los Angeles Daily News
http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_7131431
Oct 10 2007
CA
Jane Harman confronts critics over her alleged flip-flopping on the
Armenian Genocide resolution
WASHINGTON - With the House Committee on Foreign Affairs voting today
on declaring the massacre of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey genocide,
a Southland congresswoman is coming under fire for flip-flopping on
the emotionally charged resolution.
Although she co-sponsored it, Rep. Jane Harman last week wrote to
the chairman of the committee urging him not to bring the resolution
to a vote and declaring that she will vote against it if it reaches
the floor.
Amid shouts of "genocide denier" and "You are a hypocrite and liar,"
the El Segundo Democrat defended her letter Saturday to about 70
Armenian students who confronted her at a political rally in Lakewood.
"I am not denying it," Harman said of the World War I-era killings
that Armenians and many historians estimate at more than 1.5 million
and declare were part of a planned genocide campaign.
"I come from a community where there was genocide against my people,
too," Harman, who is Jewish, told the students. But, she said,
Turkey at the moment is "exercising a role in the Middle East that
is very important" and she didn't want to risk creating a rift with
the U.S. ally.
In the letter, she told Rep. Tom Lantos, the San Mateo Democrat who
chairs the foreign-affairs panel, that, although she sympathizes
with the sentiments in the resolution she co-sponsored, she would
vote against it because of "the timing."
The controversy comes as today's committee vote marks the first time
in recent memory that the genocide resolution stands a significant
chance of making it to the House floor. While the bill passed the
same committee when it was under Republican control two years ago,
then-speaker Dennis Hastert blocked it from going to a full House vote.
This time, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, is a co-sponsor
and she has vowed to bring it to the floor, possibly by Thanksgiving.
Meanwhile, Turkish President Abdullah Gul warned the U.S. on Tuesday
that relations between the two countries will suffer if Congress
declares the events a genocide. The Bush administration also is urging
Republican lawmakers to reject the resolution.
Turkey maintains that there was no plan for systematic extermination,
and that Armenians were killed when they joined forces with the French
and Russians to attack Turks in the chaotic aftermath of the war.
Zanku Armenian, a board member of the Armenian National Committee of
America's Western Region in Glendale, called Harman's new position
"the height of deception and hypocrisy."
Vahram Shemmassian, director of the Armenian Studies Department at
Cal State Northridge, said today's vote will be a test for how the
U.S. and its leaders stand on human rights.
"The Armenian genocide was a crime against humanity and if the
United States of America is fighting for human rights, this is a good
example of defending human rights and standing for American values,"
said Shemmassian.