Bush Administration Stands Opposed to Resolution on Armenia Genocide

WASHINGTON (AP) — Turkish and American officials have been pressing lawmakers to reject a measure next week that would declare the World War I-era killings of Armenians a genocide.

On Friday, the issue reached the highest levels as President Bush and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan talked by telephone about their opposition to the legislation, which is to go before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday.

The dispute involves the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Armenians during the waning years of the Ottoman Empire.

Armenian advocates, backed by many historians, contend the Armenians died in an organized genocide. 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.

Armenian supporters of the congressional measure, who seem to have enough votes to get approval by both the committee and the full House, have also been mustering a grass-roots campaign among the large diaspora community in the United States to make sure that a successful committee vote leads to consideration by the full House.

One interest group, the Armenian National Committee of America, has engaged about 100,000 supporters to call lawmakers about the issue, according to Executive Director Aram Hamparian.

Similar measures have been debated in Congress for decades. But well-organized Armenian groups have repeatedly been thwarted by concerns about damaging relations with Turkey, an important NATO ally that has made its opposition clear.

Lawmakers say that this time, the belief that the resolution has a chance to pass a vote by the full House has both Turkey and Armenian groups pulling out all stops to influence the members of the committee.

"The lobbying has been the most intense that I have ever seen it," said the bill's sponsor, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif.

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From the LA Times:

In the long, unhappy life of the congressional resolution
to officially recognize and commemorate the Armenian genocide, there
have been many moments (from the Armenian point of view, which I
broadly share) of parliamentary treachery -- then-House speaker Dennis
Hastert withdrawing the resolution
at the last minute in 2000, both presidents George Bush vowing as
candidates to officially recognize the genocide then dropping the
pledge once in the White House, and so on.

Now we can add to that list ... hawkish South Bay Democrat Jane
Harman! Even though Harman is one the bill's 226 co-sponsors, she
nonetheless wrote a letter
to House Foreign Relations Committee Chair Tom Lantos Wednesday urging
him to withdraw it from consideration, and announcing that she will
oppose the very resolution she affixed her name to. Excerpt:

My
father was a refugee to the United States from Nazi Germany. I
understand the consquences of ethnic and racial persecution, and am
comitted to fighting and condemning acts of genocide wherever they
occur. That is why I agreed to cosponsor H. Res. 106. I am convinced
that a terrible crime was committed against the Armenian people. That
crime should be recognized and condemned.

However, following a visit to Turkey earlier this year that included
meetings with Prime Minister Erdogan, the Armenian Orthodox Patriarch
and colleagues of murdered journalist Hrant Dink, I have great concern
that this is the wrong time for the Congress to consider this measure.

Due to my security focus in the House, I have made 18 trips to the
Middle East region over the past 14 years and am persuaded that Turkey
plays a critically important role in moderating extremist forces there.
Given the nature of the threat, I believe it is imperative to nurture
that role -- however valid from the historical perspective, we should
avoid taking steps that would embarrass or isolate the Turkish
leadership.