House committee approves Armenian genocide

[Truth Bearer]

House committee approves Armenian genocide resolution
Story Highlights
House panel passes resolution 27-21

Bush says passage of resolution would cause "great harm"

House resolution calls killing of Armenians during World War I "genocide"

Turkish president says passage of resolution would create a "backlash"

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A House committee Wednesday evening narrowly approved a resolution that labels the killings of Armenians in Turkey during World War I as "genocide."

The House Foreign Affairs Committee passed the measure 27-21, even though President Bush and key figures lobbied hard against it.

The president, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates said passage of the resolution would hurt relations with an important U.S. ally.

Bush urged lawmakers to oppose the resolution, which he said would cause "great harm" to U.S. relations with Turkey, which he called a key ally in NATO and the "global war on terror."

"We all deeply regret the tragic suffering of the Armenian people that began in 1915. This resolution is not the right response to those historic mass killings," Bush said at the White House.

But House Democratic leaders said earlier if the Foreign Affairs Committee passed the resolution, they intended to bring it to the House floor.

The resolution's sponsor, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-California, said the measure already had 226 co-sponsors, more than enough votes to pass "and the most support an Armenian genocide resolution has ever received."

Earlier, Rice and Gates made their comments jointly before reporters at the White House. They said Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. military officer in Iraq; U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker; and Adm. William Fallon, head of the U.S. Central Command, raised concerns about the resolution.

"We recognize the feelings of those who want to express their concern and their disdain for what happened many years ago," Rice said. "But the passage of this resolution at this time would, indeed, be very problematic for everything that we're trying to do in the Middle East because we are very dependent on a good Turkish strategic ally to help with our efforts." Watch why Rice and Gates oppose the resolution »

The nonbinding resolution refers to the "genocide" of Armenians in the early 20th century during the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, which preceded the creation of modern Turkey in 1923.

"In the case that Armenian allegations are accepted, there will be serious problems in the relations between the two countries," Turkish President Abdullah Gul said in a letter to Bush.

Nabi Sensoy, Turkey's ambassador to the United States, told CNN the resolution's passage would be a "very injurious move to the psyche of the Turkish people."

He predicted a "backlash" in the country, saying there would be setbacks on several fronts: Turkish-American relations, Turkish-Armenian relations and the normalization of relations between the nations of Turkey and Armenia.

Gates said good relations with Turkey are vital because 70 percent of the air cargo intended for U.S. forces in Iraq and 30 percent of the fuel consumed by those forces flies through Turkey.

U.S. commanders, Gates said, "believe clearly that access to airfields and roads and so on in Turkey would very much be put at risk if this resolution passes and the Turks react as strongly as we believe they will."

"Our heavy dependence on the Turks for access is really the reason the commanders raised this and why we're so concerned about the resolution," Gates said.

The resolution calls on 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, and for other purposes."

A similar resolution passed the committee by a 40-7 vote two years ago, but it never reached the full House floor. House Republican leader John Boehner, noting the critical military and strategic alliance with Turkey, said bringing the resolution to the floor would be "totally irresponsible."

"Let the historians decide what happened 90 years ago," Boehner said in a written statement.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer met with Turkish officials in Pelosi's office Wednesday morning. Hoyer said he and Pelosi informed the officials that they support the resolution.

Hoyer said he told officials that while he considers Turkey a strong ally, "this was about another government at another time."

"I believe that our government's position is clear -- that genocide was perpetrated against the Armenian people approximately 90 years ago and during the course of the First World War. And I believe that remembering that, noting that, is important so that we not paper over or allow the Ahmadinejads of the next decade or decades to deny a fact," Hoyer said.

Schiff, who represents a southern California district with many Armenian-Americans, refers to "the systematic and deliberate annihilation of 1,500,000 Armenians as genocide."

The term genocide is defined in dictionary.com as "the deliberate and systematic extermination of a national, racial, political, or cultural group."

But the description is hotly disputed in Turkey, the predominantly Muslim, but modern and secular, pro-Western ally of the United States.

Turks argue that all peoples -- Armenians and Turks -- suffered during the warfare. But Armenians maintain there was an organized genocide by the Ottoman Turkish authorities, and have been campaigning across the world for official recognition of the genocide.

The resolution arrives at a particularly sensitive juncture in U.S.-Turkish relations. The United States has urged Turkey not to send its troops over the border into northern Iraq to fight Kurdish separatist rebels, who have launched some cross-border attacks against Turkish targets.

Observers of U.S.-Turkish relations have argued the House resolution could make Turkey less inclined to use restraint in dealing with its longstanding problems with the Kurdistan Workers Party.

"The United States has a compelling historical and moral reason to recognize the Armenian genocide, which cost a million and a half people their lives," Schiff said. "But we also have a powerful contemporary reason as well. How can we take effective action against the genocide in Darfur if we lack the will to condemn genocide whenever and wherever it occurs?"

House committee approves Armenian genocide resolution - CNN.com

[pankration]

Have American diplomats lost their minds? Using that logic, they should deny the Holocaust; after all there are more Arabs than Jews and the Arabs control the oil. Pathetic and even though I don't want to be a Bush basher they should be ashamed of themselves. And by the way, why isn't Greece included in that resolution? They lost hundreds of thousands too to the Turks through exile, executions, etc.
Christ, everything on this forum is pissing me off tonight.

[Truth Bearer]

Turkey recalls ambassador to US
Ankara is recalling its ambassador to Washington for consultations amid anger at a vote in Congress labelling the mass killing of Armenians as genocide.
The passing of the resolution by a House committee on Wednesday despite appeals by the Bush administration was denounced by President Abdullah Gul.

Turkey accepts there were mass killings in 1915-17 but denies genocide.

Turkey's foreign ministry said the ambassador would return to Turkey for a stay of "a week or 10 days".

"We are not withdrawing our ambassador," said ministry spokesman Levent Bilman.


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"We have asked him to come to Turkey for some consultations."

US President George W Bush had argued against the resolution, saying its passage would do "great harm" to relations with "a key ally in Nato and in the global war on terror".

Turkey is a regional operational hub for the US military, and some suggest access to Incirlik airbase or other supply lines crucial to US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, could be affected by the row.

The US also fears Turkey may make a military incursion into northern Iraq to neutralise Kurdish separatist guerrillas there, who continue to cross the border to ambush Turkish troops.

'Unacceptable and invalid'

The non-binding vote, passed by 27 to 21 votes by members of the congressional House Foreign Affairs Committee, is the first step towards holding a vote in the House of Representatives.


Anti-US protests have been held in Turkey's main cities

It was welcomed by Armenian President Robert Kocharyan who said he hoped for "full [US] recognition... of the genocide".

For Turkey's president, the US vote showed that some US politicians had "closed their ears to calls to be reasonable and once again sought to sacrifice big problems for small domestic political games".

"This unacceptable decision of the committee, like similar ones in the past, is not regarded by the Turkish people as valid or of any value," Mr Gul said late on Wednesday.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan confirmed that the Turkish parliament would discuss allowing military incursions into northern Iraq, possibly next week.

The move comes after an escalation in attacks by the PKK killed almost 30 soldiers and civilians in just over a week.

Mr Erdogan said such authorisation, which would be valid for one year, would ensure all options were available to Turkey in its fight against the PKK.

Burning argument

Last year, the lower house of the French parliament declared the killings of Armenians a genocide and at least 20 countries at various levels of legislation have passed resolutions on the issue.


If you start counting the killing of people in recent history, the situation in Darfur should get top priority
Bob, USA
BBC News website reader


Armenia alleges that up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed in an organised campaign to force them out of what is now eastern Turkey.

That is strongly denied by Turkey, which says that large numbers of both Turks and Armenians were killed in the chaos surrounding World War I and the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, when there was an uprising by Armenians.

Earlier on Thursday, the son of murdered Turkish-Armenian writer Hrant Dink was found guilty by a Turkish court of insulting "Turkishness" along with another newspaper editor.

Arat Dink and Serkis Seropyan were convicted after printing Dink's arguments for describing the Ottoman-era killings as genocide.



Story from BBC NEWS:
BBC NEWS | Europe | Turkey recalls ambassador to US

Published: 2007/10/11 21:31:00 GMT

© BBC MMVII

[Draco]

Originally Posted by pankration

why isn't Greece included in that resolution? They lost hundreds of thousands too to the Turks through exile, executions, etc.

That resolution was probably very controversial and the slightest thing could have made it fail. The Greek cases are (unfortunately) much less documented and if they were included, they could have cost critical votes.

[Reaper]

About time. Those Turks have got away with that for too long. America gave them Cyprus, now they will give them a little reality about their recent past.

[Draco]

Originally Posted by Reaper

About time. Those Turks have got away with that for too long. America gave them Cyprus, now they will give them a little reality about their recent past.

At least we know that the Democrats are not (or no longer) absolutely pro-Turk; when they replace Bush (and they will) θα αρχίσουν τα γλέντια με το Κυπριακό.

Incidentally the FYROM issue will have been solved by them, they will have joined NATO under a compromise name and then will be firmly tied to the US, so the US needn't continue trying to woo them. Why do you think the official US policy seems pro-FYROM? They want them to join NATO (and then be part of the west) and prevent them turning to Russia; isolating Russia is their main aim. Do you think they want FYROM to join NATO because of their military capabilities? FYROM cannot significantly contribute militarily to NATO, US insistence on them joining is only part of a larger scheme intended to isolate Russia.

[Reaper]

So why doesn't Russia help us?

[Draco]

Originally Posted by Reaper

So why doesn't Russia help us?

With what?

[Reaper]

Fyrom. Surely would be in their interests to have an ally in the balkans and infact push the agenda of pan-slavicism, rather than help them believe they are macedonians.

[Draco]

Originally Posted by Reaper

Fyrom. Surely would be in their interests to have an ally in the balkans and infact push the agenda of pan-slavicism, rather than help them believe they are macedonians.

When Yeltsin recognized FYROM as Macedonia, he did it for the following reason: Greece was in NATO, FYROM was not - recognizing FYROM under the name of their choice, he was trying to make closer FYROM-Russian ties appeal more to the FYROMians than closer ties with the Greek-influenced West.