'07 US Armenian Genocide Bill news

[Joseph]

Good news. I hope they continue the pressure and add more names to the list to ensure passage. My Congressman is signed up.

It is also good to see so many other organizations supporting us. We should reciprocate we the time comes.

[1.5 million]

Heck maybe its even time to see if we can get the treaty of Sevres ratified...I mean why not eh? Seriously though - this is good news - now we need to see them follow through (with their votes) (and not cave into the money pressure)...

[Joseph]

ONE MORE CONGRESSMAN BECOMES SUPPORTER OF RESOLUTION CONCERNING ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

Noyan Tapan
Jun 29, 2007

PHOENIX, JUNE 29, NOYAN TAPAN - ARMENIANS TODAY. Harry Mitchell,
Arizona, became the 211th supporter of Resolution 106 of U.S. Congress
concerning the Armenian Genocide.

The Hay Dat office in Arizona, as well as the Armenians living in
the province, welcomed Congressman Harry Mitchell's step supporting
the bill.

The Congressman is the former Tampa mayor and the former co-chairman
of the Democratic party of the province, who also held a high position
in the provincial Senate of Arizona.

[Evropeos]

Armenian Genocide Resolution gains 218 votes





30.06.2007 14:02 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Armenian Genocide Resolution (H.Res.106) reached an important milestone today with the number of cosponsors for the human rights measure growing to 218 – a majority of the U.S. House of Representatives, reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).

"We welcome the growth of Armenian Genocide Resolution cosponsors to the 218 threshold – and want to extend our appreciation to Congressman Schiff and his colleagues who helped us reach this mark, as well as to each and everyone of the two hundred and eighteen cosponsors of this measure," said Aram Hamparian, Executive Director of the ANCA. "We look forward in the coming days and weeks to working with our chapters and activists across the country in maintaining and expanding the bipartisan majority in favor of the timely adoption of this human rights legislation."

"In gaining 218 cosponsors, we have demonstrated that a majority of the House strongly supports recognizing the facts of the Armenian Genocide," said lead sponsor, Congressman Adam Schiff. "While there are still survivors left, we feel a great sense of urgency in calling attention to the attempted murder of an entire people. Our failure to acknowledge these dark chapters of history prevents us from taking more effective action against ongoing genocides, like Darfur."

source

[Joseph]

Genocide resolution stalls
House leaders can decide to put measure on Armenian deaths to vote.
By Michael Doyle / Bee Washington Bureau

http://www.fresnobee.com/263/v-printerfriendly/story/74271.html

07/01/07 05:04:03

WASHINGTON -- The push for a congressional resolution that would label the slaughter of Armenians between 1915 and 1923 a "genocide" has cleared a key hurdle, winning the support of a majority of House members.
Now the real fighting begins.

As of Friday, 218 House members support the controversial resolution. The San Joaquin Valley's Armenian-Americans and their congressional champions next must discover what congressional leaders have in mind. It will be up to House leaders to decide whether and when the measure comes up for a vote.

"We're making sure we have all of our ducks lined up," said Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Pasadena.

Schiff and Rep. George Radanovich, R-Mariposa, are the chief congressional sponsors of the resolution, introduced in its latest form five months ago. Radanovich acknowledged recently that he is "a little concerned" that the bill hasn't yet been considered by the House Foreign Relations Committee.

Different concerns motivate the White House and the Turkish government, both vigorously resisting the resolution they say would endanger diplomatic relations. A recent poll found that 83% of Turkish residents view the United States negatively.

"This is a very sensitive time to be bringing up this resolution," cautioned Rep. Phil English, R-Pa. "Right now, we need to be reaching out to Turkey."

English's own change of heart illustrates the complicated politics of genocide recognition. English is one of five House members who initially endorsed the Armenian genocide resolution this year but later withdrew support.

English said he dropped his sponsorship, six weeks after signing onto the bill, following a meeting with members of the Turkish parliament.

English's congressional district in far northwestern Pennsylvania lacks a sizable Armenian-American population.

By contrast, more than 50,000 Armenian-Americans live in California's San Joaquin Valley, and the Armenian genocide issue is acutely important for the region's politicians.

Backers secured additional sponsors in recent days, following an extended telephone campaign organized through the Armenian National Committee of America.

The resolution is symbolic, articulating a viewpoint that lacks the force of law. It urges President Bush to "accurately characterize the systematic and deliberate annihilation" of Armenians as genocide.

"The Armenian Genocide was conceived and carried out by the Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 1923, resulting in the deportation of nearly 2,000,000 Armenians, of whom 1,500,000 men, women, and children were killed [and] 500,000 survivors were expelled from their homes," the resolution says.

Genocide was defined as a crime under international law in 1948, after the Ottoman Empire had ended. It means "an intent to destroy" a population "in whole or in part." It includes killing and "deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction."

Many historians, including the International Association of Genocide Scholars, have concluded the murders and forced deportations of Armenians into the unforgiving Syrian desert amounted to genocide.

The Turkish government disputes the overall death count and says the Armenians were in any event caught in a tumultuous time of war. "Unlike the Holocaust, the numbers, dates, facts and the context associated with this period are all contested, and objective scholars remain deeply divided," Turkish Ambassador Nabi Sensoy declared in a statement last year.

To help spread this viewpoint, the Turkish government is paying former Republican congressman Robert Livingston $750,000 every six months.

In May, public records also show, the Turkish government also signed a $100,000-a-month lobbying contract with the firm of former House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt.

A Democrat, and one-time presidential candidate, Gephardt had supported versions of the genocide resolution when he was in Congress.

"The Turkish government is lobbying heavily," Radanovich said. "They've been working it."

The Bush administration, like the Clinton administration before it, emphasizes the diplomatic costs of alienating Turkey. The last time Radanovich came close to getting a House vote on a genocide resolution, in 2000, then-House Speaker Dennis Hastert pulled the bill from the floor at the last minute at President Clinton's request.

The current House speaker, Democrat Nancy Pelosi, backed previous genocide resolutions when she was a rank-and-file House member. Ultimately, Radanovich said, it will be Pelosi's call on whether the resolution gets a vote. Schiff said, "I think we have a good shot at this."

The reporter can be reached at [email protected] or(202) 383-0006.

[Evropeos]

Schiff and Rep. George Radanovich, R-Mariposa, are the chief congressional sponsors of the resolution, introduced in its latest form five months ago. Radanovich acknowledged recently that he is "a little concerned" that the bill hasn't yet been considered by the House Foreign Relations Committee.

Joseph, if i have counted right, until now there are 23 members of the House Foreign Relations Committee who cosponsors the resolution but there are still 27 members who hasnt cosponsored yet the resolution.So there is still some work to be done but i think it looks pretty good for passing the resolution in the House Foreign Relations Committee.

[Steph]

Erdoğan aide, US House speaker's secret meeting on Armenian bill
Monday, July 9, 2007
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Erdoğan aide, US House speaker's secret meeting on Armenian bill

Ümit ENGİNSOY
WASHINGTON - Turkish Daily News



Cüneyd Zapsu, a top adviser to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, lobbied against an Armenian genocide bill pending in Congress during talks in February with Nancy Pelosi, Democratic speaker of the House of Representatives, a meeting that had been keep secret until now, sources here said.

Richard Holbrooke, a Democrat and a former top diplomat, arranged and attended the meeting, one source said. Holbrooke is known for his role in putting an end to the war in Bosnia as assistant state of secretary in former president Bill Clinton's administration.

Zapsu voiced the Ankara government's concerns over the resolution, saying its passage by the House would seriously hurt bilateral ties with Turkey, said the source.

The Pelosi-Zapsu meeting took place shortly after Foreign Minister Abdullah Gül also visited the U.S. capital in early February. But neither Gül nor three Turkish parliamentary teams visiting Washington one after another to lobby against the bill had talks with the House speaker.

Nabi Şensoy, Turkey's ambassador to Washington separately met with Pelosi in May.

Pelosi at the time told Şensoy that she would not stick to an Armenian timetable in deciding how to handle the resolution, another source said.

Pro-Armenian groups had been pushing House leaders for the passage of the resolution around April 24, declared by U.S. presidents each year as a day of remembrance for the World War I-era Armenian killings in the Ottoman Empire.

House Resolution 106, originally introduced by Democratic Representative Adam Schiff and Republican lawmaker George Radanovich in late January, calls for formal recognition of the Armenian killings as genocide.



Turkey braces for more trouble:

Turkish and U.S. administration efforts to prevent the measure's passage have so far been successful, but the future is not bright for Ankara, with a number of worrying developments taking place in recent weeks.

A majority of lawmakers in the House, lower chamber of Congress, are now supporting the Armenian genocide resolution. The number of representatives cosponsoring the measure in late June rose to 218 in the 435-member House.

Obtaining the support of 218 lawmakers does not automatically enable the Armenians to force a House floor vote for the resolution, but means the overcoming of a psychological threshold.

Another group of at least 218 representatives signing a separate and special petition calling for a floor vote is required to push Pelosi to do that, and it would be hard for the Armenians to collect that number of signatures, because most Democratic lawmakers would not want to confront their congressional leader in this way.

But psychological pressure is building up on Pelosi, and analysts said the resolution likely would reach the House floor agenda any time after early September, when Congress returns to work after a summer recess in August.

But still this would come after critical parliamentary elections in Turkey on July 22.

A similar resolution is also pending in the Senate, Congress' upper chamber, with 31 senators out of a total of 100 backing the measure. But Armenian efforts focus on moving on the House side first.

Before last year's congressional elections in which the Democrats won a landslide victory, Pelosi had pledged to work for the passage of the genocide measure. But after taking office, she has adopted a more responsible position, Turkish diplomats said.

[Joseph]

Erdo?an aide, US House speaker's secret meeting on Armenian bill
Monday, July 9, 2007
print this page mail to a friend
Erdo?an aide, US House speaker's secret meeting on Armenian bill

Ümit ENG?NSOY
WASHINGTON - Turkish Daily News



Cüneyd Zapsu, a top adviser to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdo?an, lobbied against an Armenian genocide bill pending in Congress during talks in February with Nancy Pelosi, Democratic speaker of the House of Representatives, a meeting that had been keep secret until now, sources here said.

Richard Holbrooke, a Democrat and a former top diplomat, arranged and attended the meeting, one source said. Holbrooke is known for his role in putting an end to the war in Bosnia as assistant state of secretary in former president Bill Clinton's administration.

Zapsu voiced the Ankara government's concerns over the resolution, saying its passage by the House would seriously hurt bilateral ties with Turkey, said the source.

The Pelosi-Zapsu meeting took place shortly after Foreign Minister Abdullah Gül also visited the U.S. capital in early February. But neither Gül nor three Turkish parliamentary teams visiting Washington one after another to lobby against the bill had talks with the House speaker.

Nabi ?ensoy, Turkey's ambassador to Washington separately met with Pelosi in May.

Pelosi at the time told ?ensoy that she would not stick to an Armenian timetable in deciding how to handle the resolution, another source said.

Pro-Armenian groups had been pushing House leaders for the passage of the resolution around April 24, declared by U.S. presidents each year as a day of remembrance for the World War I-era Armenian killings in the Ottoman Empire.

House Resolution 106, originally introduced by Democratic Representative Adam Schiff and Republican lawmaker George Radanovich in late January, calls for formal recognition of the Armenian killings as genocide.



Turkey braces for more trouble:

Turkish and U.S. administration efforts to prevent the measure's passage have so far been successful, but the future is not bright for Ankara, with a number of worrying developments taking place in recent weeks.

A majority of lawmakers in the House, lower chamber of Congress, are now supporting the Armenian genocide resolution. The number of representatives cosponsoring the measure in late June rose to 218 in the 435-member House.

Obtaining the support of 218 lawmakers does not automatically enable the Armenians to force a House floor vote for the resolution, but means the overcoming of a psychological threshold.

Another group of at least 218 representatives signing a separate and special petition calling for a floor vote is required to push Pelosi to do that, and it would be hard for the Armenians to collect that number of signatures, because most Democratic lawmakers would not want to confront their congressional leader in this way.

But psychological pressure is building up on Pelosi, and analysts said the resolution likely would reach the House floor agenda any time after early September, when Congress returns to work after a summer recess in August.

But still this would come after critical parliamentary elections in Turkey on July 22.

A similar resolution is also pending in the Senate, Congress' upper chamber, with 31 senators out of a total of 100 backing the measure. But Armenian efforts focus on moving on the House side first.

Before last year's congressional elections in which the Democrats won a landslide victory, Pelosi had pledged to work for the passage of the genocide measure. But after taking office, she has adopted a more responsible position, Turkish diplomats said.

More dirty tricks by the Turks but probably all for naught. Holbrooke is very anti-Armenian and is up to his old dirty work as well. The pressure is mounting on Pelosi to present the bill for a vote. The number of sponsors will continue to grow. Under pressure by the administration and the State Dept. she attended the meeting but it is my understanding that she will certainly back it.

[Gavur]

One More Congresswoman Cosponsors Armenian Genocide Resolution

2007-07-13 15:36:00

http://www.defacto.am/index.php?OP=71326693

The Armenian National Committee of Albany welcomed the addition of Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY-20) as the latest cosponsor of H. Res. 106, the Armenian Genocide Resolution. The number of cosponsors for this key human rights legislation has now grown to 220.
"We are very grateful for the Congresswoman's support of H. Res.106. Having an opportunity to meet with Darius Shahinfar, Regional Representative for Rep. Gillibrand in Sarasota Springs a few weeks prior, we look forward to continuing to work with both the district office and the Washington office to build a growing relationship with the Congresswoman," commented Antranig Karageozian, Chairman of the ANC of Albany.
Gillibrand joins nineteen other New York Representatives, as well as over two-dozen of her freshman colleagues that have signed on to the legislation. Sworn into office this past January, Gillibrand represents the 20th District of New York State, which stretches across Saratoga, Dutchess, Columbia, Rensselaer, Washington, Warren, Delaware, Greene, Essex and Otsego counties. She currently serves on the Armed Services Committee as well as the Agriculture Committee.
"I am pleased to add my name to the list of cosponsors of the Armenian Genocide bill, H. Res. 106," said Rep. Gillibrand. "By acknowledging the truth and horror of the Armenian Genocide perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire, the US will demonstrate its continued commitment, to addressing and taking action to prevent the horror of genocide in other parts of the world such as Sudan."

[Joseph]

Frank Pallone: Events of 1915 were the systematic elimination of a
people

armradio.am
14.07.2007 13:42

The Armenian Assembly commended Armenian Caucus Co-Chair Frank Pallone,
Jr. (D-NJ) for his remarks on the floor of the House of Representatives
in support of the Armenian Genocide Resolution, H. Res. 106. Pallone
honored Henry Morgenthau, US Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire during
the start of the Armenian Genocide for providing first-hand
descriptions of the atrocities that were taking place. Pallone plans to
give a series of speeches to emphasize the importance of passing the
Armenian Genocide Resolution which is currently supported by a majority
of House members.

Mr. Pallone said in his speech: "The Armenian Genocide that was
orchestrated by the Ottoman
Empire from 1915 to 1918 is an irrefutable fact. Looking at the history
of this catastrophic event, it is impossible to deny that this was
genocide on all accounts. One way to hear witness to the truth is to
make reference to first hand accounts at the time the Armenian genocide
occurred."

"Henry Morgenthau served with dignity as US Ambassador to the Ottoman
Empire from 1913 to 1916. In the wake of surging nationalism in Turkey,
and alarmed at reports of the Armenian genocide, he repeatedly appealed
to the US government to intervene, without success. Morgenthau
addressed the genocide of the Armenians in a 1915 dispatch to the State
Department in which he warned that "a campaign of race extermination is
in progress."

"He then appealed to Ottoman rulers, also without result. Finally, he
publicized his opinions in his 1918 book of memoirs, Ambassador
Morgenthau's Story, which documented his experiences while in Turkey,
including his vivid views of the Armenian genocide."

"Morgenthau wrote: "When the Turkish authorities gave the orders for
these deportations, they were merely giving the death warrant to the
whole race; they understood this well, and, in their conversations with
me, they made no particular attempt to conceal the fact...I am
confident that the whole history of the human race contains no terrible
episode as this."

"In one of his addresses Morgenthau commented on the United States
efforts during the Armenian Genocide, "If America is to condone these
offenses, if she is going to permit to continue conditions that
threaten and permit their repetition, she is party to the crime. These
people must be freed from the agony and danger of such horrors. They
must not only be saved for the present but they must be given assurance
that they will be free in peace and that no harm can come to them."

"At great personal risk and sacrifice, Morgenthau chose to intervene on
behalf of the Armenians and even managed to help rescue an unknown
number of Armenians. Of course, in the end his efforts were
unsuccessful. Drained by his failure to avert this disaster, Morgenthau
returned to the United States in 1916 and for the remainder of World
War I dedicated himself to raising funds for the surviving Armenians.
He is considered a hero in Armenia and an American man of courage and
character."

"If America is going to live up to the standards we set for ourselves,
and continue to lead the world in affirming human rights everywhere, we
need to follow Morgenthau's example. We must stand up and recognize the
tragic events that began in 1915 for what they were-the systematic
elimination of a people. By recognizing these actions as genocide we
can renew our commitment to prevent such atrocities from occurring
again."

"I wish to express my support for swift passage of H. Res. 106 which
reaffirms the Armenian Genocide. It now has a majority of the Members
of the House as cosponsors. As the first genocide of the 20th Century,
it is morally imperative that we remember this atrocity and
collectively demand reaffirmation of this crime against humanity."