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  • Blue Dog 'Disappointed' Controversial Genocide Resolution Didn't Com

    BLUE DOG 'DISAPPOINTED' CONTROVERSIAL GENOCIDE RESOLUTION DIDN'T COME TO FLOOR
    By Bridget Johnson

    The Hill
    http://thehill.com/news-by-subject/foreign-policy/135001-blue-dog-disappointed-that-controversial-genocide-resolution-didnt-come-to-house-floor
    Dec 23 2010

    The 111th Congress adjourned Wednesday without bringing up the latest
    incarnation of legislation that would have recognized the 1915 killings
    of 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Empire as genocide.

    Lobbying groups were on alert over the weekend on reports that Speaker
    Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) would bring the resolution to the floor in
    the final days of the lame-duck session.

    But lawmakers went home for the holidays without passing Rep. Adam
    Schiff's (D-Calif.) resolution, angering Armenian groups and leaving
    Turkish groups breathing a sigh of relief.

    "[Pelosi's] decision to not move this legislation forward during her
    four years as Speaker represents a failure of Congressional leadership
    on human rights and, sadly, a setback to America's standing in the
    struggle to end the cycle of genocide," Ken Hachikian, chairman of
    the Armenian National Committee of America, said in a statement.

    The Turkish Coalition of America praised the efforts of the
    Congressional Turkish Caucus in keeping the resolution from coming
    to the floor.

    "Even the sponsors of the resolution realized that legislative
    trickery and back room tactics is not how Congress should operate,"
    said G. Lincoln McCurdy, TCA president, in a statement.

    "We now know that a majority of Congress agrees with President Obama
    about the importance of the US-Turkey relationship, and expect this
    wisdom to carry over into the 112th Congress so that we can avoid yet
    another needless round of bashing our ally Turkey at the expense of
    our national interests."

    This Congress wasn't the first time such a resolution tried to make
    it through, but its passage in committee angered Turkey to the point
    that it called its ambassador back to Ankara for a time.

    Schiff's resolution, which "calls upon the President to ensure
    that the foreign policy of the United States reflects appropriate
    understanding and sensitivity concerning issues related to human
    rights, ethnic cleansing, and genocide documented in the United States
    record relating to the Armenian Genocide," passed the House Foreign
    Affairs Committee on March 4 by a slim margin, 23-22.

    A similar resolution was approved by the Foreign Affairs Committee in
    2007. Just like this time around, the White House came out against
    the resolution, fearing it would damage relations with Turkey, and
    Pelosi did not bring the measure to the floor.

    Schiff said that he and co-sponsors had launched a "full-press effort"
    to get the resolution to the floor in the past weeks.

    "We believed that Turkey's burgeoning alliance with Iran, its support
    for Hamas, and its insincere promise to seek reconciliation with modern
    Armenia would finally serve to offset Turkey's shameful campaign of
    denial," Schiff said in a statement.

    The Blue Dog Democrat said he was "deeply disappointed" that Congress
    recessed without taking up the measure.

    "To my many thousands of Armenian-American constituents and friends,
    I pledge to you that I will continue to press for recognition of the
    Armenian Genocide until the memory of those who perished from 1915-23
    is formally and forever preserved in our national consciousness,"
    Schiff said.

    Obama had promised early in his presidential campaign that he would
    call the mass killings genocide if elected. Beginning early in his
    term, though, Obama avoided use of the word genocide when asked about
    his campaign promise during a press conference in Turkey.

    In his Armenian Remembrance Day statements over the past two years,
    Obama has avoided use of the word "genocide."

    Schiff's resolution would have called upon Obama to "accurately
    characterize the systematic and deliberate annihilation of 1,500,000
    Armenians as genocide" in his annual message.

    "Coming in the wake of President Obama's string of broken promises to
    recognize the Armenian Genocide, Speaker Pelosi's refusal to schedule
    a vote on the Armenian Genocide Resolution represents a major breach
    of trust with Armenian American voters," Hachikian said.

    Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan sent Obama a letter
    Monday asking him to prevent the vote, warning that it could damage
    ties between the two countries.

    "We cannot allow the resolution to hang over Turkish-U.S. ties like
    a Sword of Damocles," said Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, who
    also urged Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Friday to keep the
    resolution from passing.




    From: A. Papazian
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