Tweet
U.S. JEWISH GROUPS 'NO LONGER OPPOSED' TO ARMENIAN GENOCIDE RECOGNITION
Asbarez
Monday, June 14th, 2010
WASHINGTON (RFE/RL)-Turkey can no longer count on the backing of
the powerful Jewish lobby in the United States in its efforts to
block a congressional resolution recognizing the Armenian genocide,
according to a Washington-based journalist.
Eli Lake, a national security correspondent for "The Washington
Times," believes that Ankara's furious reaction to the deadly
Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound international aid flotilla will help
Armenian-American advocacy groups trying to push such a resolution
through the U.S. Congress.
On June 8, the Washington Times published a revealing article by
Lake on the issue titled, "American Jewish community ends support of
Turkish interests on Hill."
"In 2008, the major Jewish organizations decided they would no longer
quietly push Congress to block a resolution commemorating the Armenian
genocide," Lake told RFE/RL's Armenian service on Monday. "This
was a reflection in some way of deteriorating ties between Israel
and Turkey."
"One of the prizes of the Turks in their relationship with Israel was
support from the American Jewish community in Washington. After the
flotilla incident, I would say that that support for now has dried up,"
he said.
Last March, a key committee of the U.S. House of Representatives
narrowly endorsed a draft resolution describing the 1915 mass killings
and deportations of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire as genocide and
urging President Barack Obama to do the same. Opposition from the
White House prevented further progress of the bill.
The leading Armenian advocacy groups in Washington are expected to
again try to bring it to the House floor for a vote ahead of the
November mid-term elections in the United States.
"I would say that they will certainly not be an obstacle to the bill,"
Lake said, referring to the more influential Jewish-American groups.
"It's possible that some groups may end up supporting it because
there is a kinship, of course, between what happened to the Armenian
people in 1915 and what happened to the Jewish people in the Holocaust
in 1939-1945."
Still, the journalist cautioned that this alone would not guarantee the
resolution's passage. "You still have plenty of other interests that
are looking to make sure that such a resolution would never be passed
by the House and that is mainly in the U.S. defense establishment, that
still considers Turkey a major NATO ally," he said. "You probably would
end up having an executive branch that would say that this complicates
our relationship with an important ally in the Mediterranean."
Lake argued that despite its growing unease over Turkish policy towards
the Arab-Israeli conflict and Iran, the United States still has "very
deep ties" with Turkey. Washington could reconsider them only if Ankara
"orients itself towards Iran," he said.
From: A. Papazian
Asbarez
Monday, June 14th, 2010
WASHINGTON (RFE/RL)-Turkey can no longer count on the backing of
the powerful Jewish lobby in the United States in its efforts to
block a congressional resolution recognizing the Armenian genocide,
according to a Washington-based journalist.
Eli Lake, a national security correspondent for "The Washington
Times," believes that Ankara's furious reaction to the deadly
Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound international aid flotilla will help
Armenian-American advocacy groups trying to push such a resolution
through the U.S. Congress.
On June 8, the Washington Times published a revealing article by
Lake on the issue titled, "American Jewish community ends support of
Turkish interests on Hill."
"In 2008, the major Jewish organizations decided they would no longer
quietly push Congress to block a resolution commemorating the Armenian
genocide," Lake told RFE/RL's Armenian service on Monday. "This
was a reflection in some way of deteriorating ties between Israel
and Turkey."
"One of the prizes of the Turks in their relationship with Israel was
support from the American Jewish community in Washington. After the
flotilla incident, I would say that that support for now has dried up,"
he said.
Last March, a key committee of the U.S. House of Representatives
narrowly endorsed a draft resolution describing the 1915 mass killings
and deportations of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire as genocide and
urging President Barack Obama to do the same. Opposition from the
White House prevented further progress of the bill.
The leading Armenian advocacy groups in Washington are expected to
again try to bring it to the House floor for a vote ahead of the
November mid-term elections in the United States.
"I would say that they will certainly not be an obstacle to the bill,"
Lake said, referring to the more influential Jewish-American groups.
"It's possible that some groups may end up supporting it because
there is a kinship, of course, between what happened to the Armenian
people in 1915 and what happened to the Jewish people in the Holocaust
in 1939-1945."
Still, the journalist cautioned that this alone would not guarantee the
resolution's passage. "You still have plenty of other interests that
are looking to make sure that such a resolution would never be passed
by the House and that is mainly in the U.S. defense establishment, that
still considers Turkey a major NATO ally," he said. "You probably would
end up having an executive branch that would say that this complicates
our relationship with an important ally in the Mediterranean."
Lake argued that despite its growing unease over Turkish policy towards
the Arab-Israeli conflict and Iran, the United States still has "very
deep ties" with Turkey. Washington could reconsider them only if Ankara
"orients itself towards Iran," he said.
From: A. Papazian