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House Panel May Revive Armenian Genocide Resolution

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  • House Panel May Revive Armenian Genocide Resolution

    HOUSE PANEL MAY REVIVE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE RESOLUTION
    By Richard Simon

    Los Angeles Times
    March 1 2010
    CA

    The measure, which risks offending Turkey, a U.S. ally, is being
    handled more cautiously after the 2007 effort, when it appeared headed
    toward approval.

    Reporting from Washington - Two and a half years after lawmakers fell
    short in their effort to pass a resolution to recognize the Armenian
    genocide, sponsors of the long-debated measure are launching a new
    bid to bring the issue before the House.

    Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Valley Village), who chairs the Foreign
    Affairs Committee and backs the resolution, plans to bring it before
    his panel Thursday.

    It will come before the House "only if the votes are there to pass
    it," Berman said. "Once we pass it out of committee, we're going to
    try to get those votes."

    The resolution, which would officially recognize the mass killing of
    Armenians by Ottoman Turks nearly a century ago as genocide, has run
    into opposition from past Democratic and Republican administrations,
    which have warned it would offend Turkey, an important U.S. military
    ally.

    The resolution's supporters are hopeful they stand a better chance
    this year because President Obama, as a candidate, said he "stood with
    the Armenian American community in calling for Turkey's acknowledgment
    of the Armenian genocide." Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of
    State Hillary Rodham Clinton had supported the resolution when they
    were senators.

    Obama, however, disappointed Armenian Americans last year when he
    did not use the word "genocide" on the April 24 remembrance day,
    instead referring to the killings as "one of the great atrocities of
    the 20th century."

    Although the Obama administration has not directly taken a position
    on the resolution, Mike Hammer, spokesman for the National Security
    Council, said the president had "consistently stated his position on
    the events of 1915."

    "Our interest remains the achievement of a full, frank and just
    acknowledgment of the facts," Hammer said in a statement. "We continue
    to believe that the best way to advance that goal is for the Armenian
    and Turkish people to address the facts of the past as a part of
    their ongoing efforts to normalize relations."

    Aram S. Hamparian, executive director of the Armenian National
    Committee of America, said, "The current administration's conduct, at
    least to date, stands in stark contrast to past administrations . . .

    that used every opportunity to score points with Ankara by attacking
    the broad, bipartisan congressional majority" in support of the
    recognition effort.

    F. Stephen Larrabee, an expert on U.S.-Turkish relations, warned in
    a recent paper for the Rand Corp., a Santa Monica-based think tank,
    that the resolution's passage would deal a "serious blow to the Obama
    administration's efforts to put U.S.-Turkish relations on a firmer
    footing, and it could prompt the Turks to take retaliatory action."

    Similar resolutions were approved by the House in 1975 and 1984 but
    did not make it through the Senate. In 2000, a genocide resolution
    was headed to the House floor when the vote was abruptly called off
    at the urging of President Clinton.

    In 2007, after a majority of House members signed on as co-sponsors,
    the resolution appeared headed toward approval. But two dozen lawmakers
    withdrew their support after the George W. Bush administration and
    Turkish government warned that passage of the resolution could lead
    Turkey to block U.S. access to its air bases, which are used to get
    supplies to U.S. troops in Iraq. A House vote was put off again.

    After that effort, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco), who
    has long supported the resolution, is likely to be more cautious about
    bringing it to the House floor. The resolution has 137 House sponsors
    from both parties, including much of the delegation from California,
    which has a large Armenian American population.

    As the committee vote nears, lobbying from both sides of the issue
    is expected to intensify.

    Among the critics, Rep. Edward Whitfield (R-Ky.), co-chairman of the
    Congressional Caucus on U.S.-Turkish Relations, said, "I think the
    American people would agree that Congress should be focusing on ways
    to strengthen our economy and create jobs and leave this debate to
    the historians."

    Berman, however, said that Congress, in championing human rights,
    "certainly should place a priority on recognizing this historical
    tragedy and calling it what it is."
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