'07 US Armenian Genocide Bill news

[Gavur]

Senate panel condemns murder of Turkish-Armenian

ReutersReuters

Mar 28, 2007 — WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. Senate panel condemned on Wednesday the murder earlier this year of a prominent Turkish-Armenian editor, Hrant Dink, who had urged Turks to acknowledge the mass killings of Armenians on Turkish soil in 1915.

The largely symbolic resolution approved by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee reopened the question of whether Congress should weigh in on the debate over whether the killings were genocide — a sensitive issue in Turkey, a key NATO ally.

Armenia says some 1.5 million Armenians suffered genocide at Ottoman Turkish hands, but Turkey denies a systematic genocide of Armenians took place, saying large numbers of Christian Armenians and Muslim Turks died in inter-ethnic fighting during World War One.

The Senate resolution that passed the committee on a voice vote does not explicitly refer to the killings as genocide, but observes that Dink, before his death, was subjected to legal action in Turkey for doing so.

It condemns Dink's murder and urges the people of Turkey to "honor his legacy of tolerance." Dink was murdered by a Turkish nationalist gunman outside his Istanbul office in January; his funeral drew 100,000 mourners.

Turkish diplomats do not look favorably on the Senate proposal, which can now go to the floor for a vote. "We don't see the benefit of such a resolution," said Tuluy Tanc, the minister-counselor at the Turkish Embassy in Washington.







But the author of the Senate resolution, Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Joseph Biden, a Delaware Democrat, said he was not deterred by Turkish sensitivities.

"A relationship that rests on a requirement of a denial of an historical event, is not a sound basis for a relationship," Biden told Reuters.

Turkish officials, as well as members of the Bush administration, have expressed more concern about other resolutions pending in Congress, but it is unclear how quickly they may advance.

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan warned last month that Congress would harm bilateral ties if it backs a resolution recognizing the 1915 mass killings of Armenians by Turks as genocide.

http://www.abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=2989989

[Joseph]

http://www.panarmenian.net/interviews/eng/?nid=74

Aram Hamparian:
House Resolution 106 is a part of global anti-genocide campaign
The adoption by the U.S. Senate of a resolution that condemns Hrant Dink’s assassination can become a stimulus for adopting H. Res. 106, which recognizes the Armenian Genocide. The adoption of this resolution can become a moral factor and call on Turkey to submit the inevitable. Executive Director of Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) Aram Hamparian comments on the current situation to PanARMENIAN.Net.
29.03.2007 GMT+04:00

Do you agree that H.Res.106 is an internal U.S. issue?

As a matter of domestic policy, clearly the Armenian Genocide Resolution currently before the U.S. Congress is an internal American issue. This legislation addresses the long U.S. record on the Armenian Genocide, including America’s protests and relief efforts during this crime against humanity. Its aim is to ensure that the U.S. government applies the lessons of this tragedy to help prevent future genocides. As such, this is an internal matter for the elected representatives of the American people - not the diplomats of foreign states. As we saw in Rwanda and are witnessing today in Darfur, preventing genocide represents a core American value and a vital U.S. security interest. Condemning genocide reinforces America’s moral leadership and international standing in opposing all genocides. More broadly, however, H.Res.106 clearly has an international dimension. This resolution is part of a growing global movement against genocide. Its adoption will help counter Turkey’s denials and will strengthen the world’s resolve to reject the dangerous precedent that Turkey has set of a genocide committed with impunity. A world in which Turkey has abandoned its genocide denial campaign will be a world safer from the scourge of new genocides.


Your opinion about dual-citizenship.

We understand that the granting of dual citizenship - in particular the specific terms outlined in the law - was a matter of considerable debate within the Armenian Parliament and throughout civic society. We respect this process and appreciate the many strongly held views that were voiced during this debate. We are gratified that the Parliament ultimately approved this provision of law, and welcome this new opportunity for dual-citizenship as a means toward strengthening ties between homeland and Diaspora, advancing Armenian identity worldwide, and fostering greater support for the democratic and national aspirations of the Armenian nation.


It is right for Armenians to go to the ceremony in Akhtamar?

Clearly the Turkish government’s aim is to use Akhtamar - a sacred Armenian religious site - as a public relations tactic to mislead international public opinion about its genocide denial campaign, ongoing destruction of Armenian cultural heritage, blockade of Armenia, and other anti-Armenian policies.


What does the ANCA do against the Turkish-Jewish lobbies in US?

Our best defense against any groups opposed to Armenian Genocide recognition is to simply state the truth - the thoroughly documented and universally available documentation of the Armenian Genocide.


What do you think about Turkish threats against U.S. troops in Iraq?

The Turkish government is threatening to obstruct U.S. operations in Iraq should the Congress recognize the Armenian Genocide. A careful look at this threat shows that it is hollow. Opponents of the Armenian Genocide Resolution are crying wolf once again. General T. Michael Moseley, Chief of Staff of the U.S. Air Force, stated on February 21, 2007, said: "I wouldn’t say that we have to [use] Incirlik to conduct operations in Iraq."

"Train wrecks" in U.S.-Turkey relations were loudly but falsely predicted before President Reagan’s 1981 public affirmation of the Armenian Genocide, the 1984 designation by the U.S. House of April 24th as a day for its remembrance, as well as before the amendments passed by the House in 1996 and 2004 restricting U.S. aid to Turkey based on its denial of this crime against humanity. Despite threats of retribution, Turkey has taken only token steps against the European Parliament, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Argentina, Austria, the Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland, and other states and international bodies that have recognized the Armenian Genocide. In fact, despite all its threats in 2001 against France’s recognition of the Armenian Genocide, trade between France and Turkey grew 22% the following year, and has grown by 131% over the past five years.


What are your concerns about the timing of the Armenian Genocide Resolution?

Now is exactly the right time to pass this resolution. The recent brutal assassination in Istanbul of noted journalist Hrant Dink, who was killed for simply speaking about the Armenian Genocide, underscores the urgent need for the U.S. to take a principled stand against the escalation of Turkey’s campaign of official denial and intolerance.
«PanARMENIAN.Net», 29.03.2007
! Reproduction in full or in part is prohibited without reference to «PanARMENIAN.Net».

[Joseph]

http://groong.usc.edu/news/msg184226.html

COALITION AGAINST ARMENIAN GENOCIDE RESOLUTION CONTINUES TO UNRAVEL

ArmRadio.am
05.04.2007 10:45

Major US companies continue to distance themselves from two corporate
coalitions that are publicly backing the Turkish government's campaign
against the Armenian Genocide Resolution, according to documents
released today by the Armenian National Committee of America.

The American Turkish Council (ATC) and the American Business Forum in
Turkey (ABFT), both coalitions claiming to represent US corporations
doing business in Turkey, have each publicly - and aggressively -
opposed the adoption by Congress of legislation recognizing the
Armenian Genocide.

In response to these efforts, the ANCA sent formal letters last
month to each member of the two coalitions, requesting that they
clarify their position on the Armenian Genocide Resolution. To date,
the ANCA has received written confirmation from a number of these
companies that they are not opposed to the adoption of the Armenian
Genocide Resolution. Among these are several major multinationals,
such as Microsoft, Xerox, American Express, Altria, Johnson & Johnson,
FedEx, and Cargill.

Leonard W. Condon, Vice President of Altria's International Business
Relations, explained in a letter to the ANCA that: "Our international
tobacco company, Philip Morris International (PMI) is a member of
the Turkish American Council. However, neither PMI nor Altria have
taken a position - and neither company plans to take a position -
on the proposed Resolution." Altria is ranked 20th on the Fortune
500 and had revenues last year of $101.4 billion.

Thomas Schick, the Executive Vice President for American Express
Corporate Affairs and Communications, in a letter to ANCA, wrote:
"Please be assured that, as a matter of company policy, American
Express does not take a position on issues before any legislative
body that do not directly affect our company." American Express is
ranked 69th on the Fortune 500 and brought in revenues during 2006
of $30.08 billion.

[Helen]

Support grows for Armenian Genocide resolution among Congressmen

11.04.2007 12:50 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ In letters circulated today to Members of the House of Representatives, the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) highlighted the growing support for the Armenian Genocide Resolution among members serving on Congressional committees dealing with America’s defense capabilities, intelligence community, foreign policy, and homeland security.

"We are deeply gratified by the strong, bipartisan support for the Armenian Genocide Resolution among Members of Congress responsible for our nation’s defense and foreign policies," said Aram Hamparian, Executive Director of the ANCA. "Beyond the clear moral issues at stake in America’s principled stand against all genocides, these Members realize that Turkey, by coming to terms with this crime, will lower regional tensions, open the door to improved relations with Armenia, and ultimately contribute to its own acceptance by the European family of nations."

[Gavur]

Support H. Res. 106 and S. Res. 106 Recognizing the Armenian Genocide

http://www.greeknewsonline.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=6631

Posted on Tuesday, April 17 @ 08:18:50 EDT by greek_news



By Gene Rossides
If you want to support the rule of law in international affairs; if you want the U.S. Congress officially to recognize the Armenian Genocide, the first holocaust in the 20th century; if you want to publicize genocides so as to help stop current genocides and help prevent future genocides, then support H. Res. 106 and S. Res. 106, the bipartisan resolutions in the House and Senate which recognize the Armenian Genocide.

H. Rees. 106 was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives on January 30, 2007 by Representative Adam Schiff (D-29th CA) for himself and co-sponsors Representatives George Radanovich (R-19th CA), Frank Pallone (D-6th NJ), Joseph Knollenberg (R-9th MI), Brad Sherman (D-27th CA), and Thaddeus McCotter (R-11th MI). H. Res. 106 was referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. Chairman Tom Lantos (D-12th CA) has not scheduled a vote.
As of April 5, 2007, there are 184 co-sponsors of H. Res. 106. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has indicated she will seek a vote on H. Res. 106 but has not set a date. In my judgment, if a vote is allowed in the House, H. Res. 106 will pass.

S. Res. 106 was introduced in the U.S. Senate by Senator Richard J. Durbin (D-IL), Majority Whip, with 25 co-sponsors as of April 5, 2007. Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME) is one of the original co-sponsors. S. Res. 106 was referred to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

In previous years, the Bush administration and the previous Clinton administration were, unfortunately, able to convince Congress not to allow a vote. This year Speaker Pelosi, with bipartisan support, hopefully will allow the Congress to act on H. Res. 106.

The Turkish government is going all-out to prevent a vote. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates have written a joint letter to Congressional leaders, including committee chairs, opposing the Armenian Genocide resolutions by Congress.

Representative Adam Schiff

The appeasement of Turkey, a disloyal ally, by Gates and Rice is embarrassing. On March 21, 2007 there was an exchange between Representative Adam Schiff and Secretary Rice during a hearing before the Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs. Secretary Rice repeatedly refused to state that the murder of 1.5 million Armenians between 1915 and 1923 by Turkey was genocide.

Mr. Schiff asked Rice: “Do you have any doubt in your mind, that the murder of 1.5 million Armenians between 1915 and 1923 constituted genocide? Is there any doubt about that in your mind?” Rice responded with the standard State Department response: “Congressman, I think these historical circumstances require a very detailed and sober look from historians and what weʼve encouraged the Turks and the Armenians to do is to have joint historical commissions that can look at this, to have efforts to examine their past and, in examining their past, to get over their past….”

Mr. Schiff then asked: “Is there any historic debate outside of Turkey? Is there any reputable historian youʼre aware of that takes issue with the fact that the murder of 1.5 million Armenians constituted genocide?”

Secretary Rice again refused to directly answer this and several other questions and gave the evasive State Department position.

The French Parliament last year passed a law stating that denial of the Armenian Genocide would be a crime. The French Parliament did not give in to the Turkish threats of economic retaliation and stood tall. The U.S. should do the same.

Time Magazine

In the June 6, 2005 issue of its European edition, Time Magazine ran a four-page advertisement, placed by the Ankara Chamber of Commerce, promoting tourism in Turkey, together with a DVD which contained a 70-minute segment that completely denied the Armenian Genocide and distorted the facts. The DVD also contained numerous false allegations against the Armenian people.

Following protests by Armenian National Committee branches worldwide, Time Magazine published in its October 17, 2005 European edition a letter to the editors of Time-Europe by leading French, Armenian, Jewish and human rights organizations. The publication was required by Franceʼs “right to reply” laws for those unfairly attacked in its pages.

Time also ran a brief apology alongside the letter stating: “Time regrets distributing the dvd and we are very sorry for the offense it has caused. The so-called documentary portion of the dvd presents a one-sided view of history that does not meet our standards for fairness and accuracy, and we would not have distributed it had we been aware of its content. Unfortunately the dvd was not adequately reviewed by anyone at Time because it was believed to be a benign promotion piece. We have since changed our review process so as to guarantee more vigilance in future. We apologize to the Armenian community and to our readers.”

In December 2005 the French organizations together with the Switzerland-Armenia Association (SAA), the French Association of Armenian Lawyers and Jurists (AFAJA), the European Armenian Federation for Justice and Democracy (EAFJD) and the California Courier newspaper “reached an amicable agreement with Time executives ensuring the facts of the Armenian Genocide are not distorted again in the pages of the magazine.”

Thereafter, Michael Elliot, editor of Time International stated in a letter to California Courier publisher Harut Sassounian: “Please be advised that, in common with other leading news organizations, it is Timeʼs policy and practice to refer to the Armenian genocide as a historical fact. Accordingly, I will be informing our correspondents and editors that the term ʽArmenian genocideʼ should be used without qualification.”

And most recently and by continued effort of Armenian organizations and non-Armenian organizations, Time Magazine in its February 12, 2007 European edition carried a full page factual announcement on the Armenian Genocide, together with a complimentary dvd in English and French “which contains a compelling 52 minute documentary on the Armenian genocide by French director Laurence Jourdan” and “a 46 minute interview with Dr. Yves Temon, a leading expert on the Armenian Genocide.” The full-page statement and the dvd were provided free of charge by Time Europe (circulation 550,000).

Aram Hamparian, Executive Director of the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) said “We welcome Time Magazineʼs judgment that – in the interest of its readersʼ right to accurate reporting- the Armenian Genocide should be reported as a fact, without qualification. This announcement by Time, along with similar policy statements by the New York Times, the Boston Globe, and many other leading publications, only increases the pressure on the administration to abandon its morally bankrupt complicity in the Turkish governmentʼs denial of its crime against the Armenian nation.”

The above actions by Armenian and non-Armenian organizations demonstrate that actions by groups, their individual members and by citizens at large do have an impact.

I urge our many Greek American organizations, their members and Greek Americans at large to support our fellow Armenian American citizens with political action. Specifically, I urge them to contact Speaker Pelosi and their own Representative and two Senators and urge their full support of H. Res. 106 and S. Res. 106 and particularly urge them in the interests of the U.S. to have a vote on these resolutions.

It is easy to call your Representative and two Senators by dialing the central Capital switchboard telephone number 202-224-3121 and ask for your Representative and Senators. Also make sure to write them. The addresses for letters to House and Senate members are:

The Honorable ___________
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515

The Honorable ____________
U.S. Senate
Washington, D.C. 20510

They should also contact Secretaries Rice and Gates and express disappointment and disagreement with their basically denialist position on the Armenian Genocide.

The address for Secretary Rice is:
U.S. Department of State
2201 C Street NW
Washington, DC 20520
Main Switchboard:
202-647-4000

The address for Secretary Gates is:
Secretary of Defense
1000 Defense Pentagon
Washington, DC 20301-1000

Finally, call and write to President George W. Bush and urge him to support the Armenian Genocide resolutions.

To call the President:
Comments: 202-456-1111
Switchboard: 202-456-1414

To write to the President:
President George W. Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

Please take action- it can help.

Gene Rossides is President of the American Hellenic Institute and former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury

[Joseph]

It's interesting yet odd that just about every US State recognizes the Genocide but the US government still refuses to do so in order not to offend their great friend Turkey.


www.defacto.am News/News 2007-04-19

COLORADO CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATION UNANIMOUSLY SUPPORTED THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE RESOLUTION

April 18 the entire Colorado congressional delegation unanimously supported the House
and Senate Armenian Genocide Resolutions, Armenian Assembly of America reports.
Congressman Mark Udall (D) was the first member of the Colorado congressional delegation to cosponsor this bipartisan resolution, followed by Representatives Marilyn Musgrave (R), Diana DeGette (D), Doug Lamborn (R), Ed Perlmutter (D) and John Salazar (D). Also, Thomas Tancredo (R) pledged to the Assembly that he would sign on as a cosponsor of H. Res. 106. In addition, Senators Wayne Allard (R) and Ken Salazar (D) are supporters of the Armenian Genocide Resolution, S. Res. 106.
The Assembly's Colorado ARAMAC (Armenian American Action Committee) State Chair Pamela Barsam Brown has been working closely with the offices of the state's lawmakers.
"Colorado's Senators and Representatives have been wonderful in their tremendous support of reaffirmation of the U.S. record of the Armenian Genocide," said Barsam Brown. "We hope other states will follow Colorado's example."
In addition to congressional support, the Armenian Genocide has also been acknowledged at the state and municipal governmental levels. Governor Bill Ritter of Colorado and Mayor John Hickenlooper of Denver have both issued proclamations on the Armenian Genocide.
The Colorado State legislature has also issued a joint resolution sponsored by State Senators Stephanie Takis and Lois Tochtrop and State Representative Michael Garcia, stating "Remembrance of April 24, 2007 and every April 24th hereafter as Colorado Day of Remembrance of the Armenian Genocide."
"We greatly appreciate the active support of the entire Colorado delegation in affirming the incontestable fact of the Armenian Genocide," said Assembly Executive Director Bryan Ardouny. "We applaud the activism and dedication of Pamela Barsam Brown and the Colorado
Armenian community for this achievement."

[Joseph]

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-na-genocide21apr21,1,4839707,full.story?coll=la-headlines-frontpage&ctrack=1&cset=true

Armenian genocide resolution far from certain
Larger forces may quash a measure on large-scale deaths in Turkey almost a century ago.
By Richard Simon, Times Staff Writer
April 21, 2007



WASHINGTON — It was the year 2000, and Rep. George P. Radanovich was on his way to the Capitol, expecting the House to pass a long-debated resolution he was sponsoring to recognize the Armenian genocide almost a century ago.

But just as the Republican from Mariposa prepared to step onto the House floor, Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) called off the vote because President Clinton personally had warned him that the symbolic but emotion-charged resolution could damage national security. Turkey, an important U.S. ally, long has insisted that the deaths of about 1 million Armenians in the waning days of the Ottoman Empire were not acts of genocide.

Seven years later, however, with Congress in the hands of Democrats, the resolution's backers believe they stand their best chance yet of winning passage — even though the Bush administration, like previous Democratic and Republican administrations, is working hard to kill it.

Radanovich is predicting that the resolution's fate once again will come down to a phone call between the president and the House speaker. This time the speaker is Democrat Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco, who as a member of the Congressional Caucus on Armenian Issues has been a passionate supporter of the genocide resolution.

But there's a rub:

During almost 20 years representing the Bay Area, home to thousands of voters of Armenian descent, Pelosi has had a relatively free hand in deciding her position on the volatile issue. But today she comes at it as a leader of the Democratic Party and a high-profile player in the U.S. government.

She has shown, by her maneuvering on Iraq war funding and her recent visit to Syria, that she is not reluctant to take on the White House. And she has learned that Republicans will be quick to seize any opportunity to brand her a lightweight in foreign affairs.

Soner Cagaptay, director of the Turkish research program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said Pelosi must now weigh the resolution "through a perspective she never did before."

*

Also in a bind

And the speaker is not the only one in a bind on the issue. The Israeli government and many of its U.S. supporters face similar crosscurrents because opposing genocide is at the core of the Jewish state, but Turkey is the closest thing to an ally Israel has in the Muslim world.

As a result, although its prospects are bright, the resolution is far from assured of passage.

Radanovich predicted that if the leadership decided to bring it to the floor, President Bush would call Pelosi and ask her not to do so, in the interest of national security. Then, said Radanovich, usually a Bush ally, "Pelosi is going to have to make a choice: to agree with the president or respectfully disagree." Radanovich said that he hoped she "respectfully disagrees" and puts the measure to a vote.

"If it gets to the floor," he said, "it passes."

Pelosi hasn't signaled whether she will schedule a vote.

The resolution is supported by 191 House members, the most sponsors it has had in 20 years, according to the Armenian National Committee of America. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) backs it, as do more than a quarter of his colleagues. California's two Democratic senators, Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, are among them.

Mark Parris, a U.S. ambassador to Turkey during the Clinton administration who now is at the Brookings Institution, said that when the Democrats won control of Congress in November, "the Turks knew there was going to be a problem."

Almost everyone, including the Turkish government, agrees that hundreds of thousands of Armenians died in eastern Turkey between 1915 and 1918 as World War I and the crumbling of the Ottoman Empire engulfed the region in turmoil. It's how they perished that continues to stir ferocious disagreement.

Armenians, along with most historians and many Western governments, say more than 1 million died at the hands of Turkish forces — victims of either murder or mass deportation that led hundreds of thousands to succumb to exposure and disease.

Turks say there was no government-sponsored program targeting Armenians. Rather, they insist, large numbers of Armenians — and Turks — died in the chaos of war and an uprising staged by Armenians seeking to capitalize on a government weakened by World War I.

"There were numerous deaths on both sides, due to war, disease, hunger and civil strife," the Turkish American Heritage Political Action Committee said in a recent letter to lawmakers.

*

Not forgetting

Though the events lie far in the past, Armenians and Armenian Americans have worked hard to keep the memory alive. The Turkish government and the ultranationalists who are resurgent in that country have worked equally hard to keep the U.S. government from taking a position.

Caught in the middle of the debate are Israel and its supporters.

"It's a terrible predicament," said David Twersky of the American Jewish Congress. "As Jews, we have a tremendous reverence for the moral imperatives of history. But then there is the aspect that no Muslim country is closer to Israel than Turkey. So we feel paralyzed by a set of conflicting emotions."

Turkish officials say the renewed push to recognize an Armenian genocide could not come at a worse time.

The issue is so incendiary that even a symbolic recognition by Congress could embolden ultranationalists there to unleash enough anti-American sentiment to shut down important U.S. military bases and affect Washington's position throughout the Middle East.

Civilian and military leaders of the Turkish government, including Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, met at a Washington hotel in February with more than a dozen leaders of major Jewish organizations in an effort to prevent action on the resolution. Members of the Anti-Defamation League and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee took part in the gathering.

"I believe the right thing for the Jewish community is to recognize the Armenian genocide as a fact, because virtually every historian and scholar of note in this area calls it a genocide," said Morton Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America. "As friends of Turkey, we need to encourage them to just recognize the truth, honor the victims and be done with it. This would only enhance Turkey's standing in the world."

Other Jewish leaders, believing the security needs of the U.S. and Israel trump distant history, are siding with Turkey.

"I don't think a bill in Congress will help reconcile this issue. The resolution takes a position. It comes to a judgment," said Abraham H. Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League. "The Turks and Armenians need to revisit their past. The Jewish community shouldn't be the arbiter of that history," he said. "And I don't think the U.S. Congress should be the arbiter either."

*

Events planned

Tuesday is Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day, and events are planned across the country to press for action on Capitol Hill. There are an estimated 1 million to 1.5 million Americans of Armenian descent.

The pending congressional resolution calls on the president to "accurately characterize the systematic and deliberate annihilation of 1.5 million Armenians as genocide." It also calls on the president to ensure that U.S. foreign policy 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."

Similar resolutions were approved by the House in 1975 and 1984, but never made it through the Senate. A 1990 resolution was blocked by a Senate filibuster. The outlook this year in that chamber is uncertain.

Although the word "genocide" stirs passionate feelings, Los Angeles Times policy is to use it because a large body of historical evidence and authoritative recent research support the accuracy of the term to describe the events.

At least one Turkish historian, Taner Akcam, has concluded that the Turkish government did commit genocide against the Armenians. In his book "A Shameful Act," Akcam cites numerous Ottoman documents that he says prove beyond a doubt that the Turkish leaders, under the cover of World War I, planned and carried out the murder of more than half of the Armenian people.

"For Turks to discuss the genocide openly, we would have to begin by conceding that some of our national fathers were thieves and murderers," said Akcam, who teaches at the University of Minnesota. "This is why the subject is so taboo."

Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Burbank), one of the resolution's chief sponsors, said: "One way you can tell that prospects for passage have improved this year is the intensity of the opposition." Schiff's district is home to more Armenian Americans than any other.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates are among those working to scuttle the measure, contending it could jeopardize Turkey's support for U.S. troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.

And a steady stream of Turkish officials, government-hired Washington lobbyists and companies with business interests in Turkey have been moving through Capitol offices, warning of a diplomatic backlash if the resolution passes.

Some say Pelosi's past support for the measure does not assure she will push for a vote anytime soon. No vote has been scheduled in the House Foreign Affairs Committee or the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, usually the first stops for such legislation.

"I'm absolutely confident that, ultimately, Speaker Pelosi will do what is in the best interests of our nation," said Rep. Robert Wexler (D-Fla.), co-chairman of the Congressional Caucus on Turkey and an opponent of the resolution. He noted that supplies destined for U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan pass through Turkey.

Radanovich dismissed such concern, saying: "The Turkish government will throw a fit, and three months later, they'll be over it."

*

[email protected]

Times staff writer Mark Arax in California contributed to this report.

[Hovik]

The politics of saying 'genocide'

Los Angeles Times, CA

The politics of saying 'genocide'

More than 90 years after the Armenian genocide, the U.S. is
deadlocked in a humiliating linguistic debate.

By Matt Welch, MATT WELCH is The Times' assistant editorial pages
editor.
April 22, 2007

ON TUESDAY, President Bush will be obliged, by law, to wrap his
double-talking mouth around one of the most curiously persistent
debates in modern geopolitics: Whether to call a 92-year-old genocide
a "genocide."

Every April 24 since 1994, the U.S. president has delivered a
proclamation honoring the people Congress has declared to be "the
victims of genocide, especially the 1 1/2 million people of Armenian
ancestry who were the victims of the genocide perpetrated in Turkey
between 1915 and 1923." And every year since 1994, the U.S. president
has managed to do it without once uttering the G-word. It's a ritual
of linguistic realpolitik in deference to the massive objections from
Washington's important NATO ally, Turkey.

But 2007 may be the year that the cop-out finally blows up in a
president's face. What was once the obscure obsession of marginalized
immigrants from a powerless little Caucasus country has blossomed in
recent years into a force that has grown increasingly difficult to
ignore. In 2000, the Armenian issue helped fuel one of the most
expensive House races in U.S. history; two years ago, it turned a
mild-mannered career U.S. diplomat into an unlikely truth-telling
martyr. Now the question of how to address these long-ago events is
having an impact on next month's elections in Turkey.

What's more, Congress appears poised to vote on a resolution urging
the president to say the words "Armenian genocide" when observing the
awkwardly named "National Day of Remembrance of Man's Inhumanity to
Man" on April 24 — the date in 1915 when the Ottoman predecessors of
modern Turkey launched the genocide by rounding up 250 Armenian
intellectuals for eventual execution.

The resolution won't take effect on Tuesday. The Bush administration,
ever mindful of its delicate relationship with Turkey (especially
with a war in Iraq next door), takes the bill so seriously that
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert M.
Gates warned in a joint letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San
Francisco) that it could "harm American troops in the field." The
lobbying has been successful enough that the House has delayed its
vote until after this year's April 24 commemoration. But passage
later this year would still be an enormous blow to the White House.

Why is this hairsplitting exercise over a single word — in a
nonbinding resolution, no less — reverberating so strongly more than
nine decades later? The easy answer is that there has been a
confluence of mostly unrelated events. Democrats took control of
Congress in January and are spoiling for a fight, especially one that
can paint Bush's foreign policy as hypocritical. The president, after
all, used "genocide" as a justification to topple Saddam Hussein
before, during and after the war against his regime, and the United
States has not hesitated to apply the word to the crisis in Darfur,
where more than 200,000 people have died since 2003.

Across the Atlantic, the Armenian question — especially Turkey's
offensive laws against "insulting Turkishness," which have been used
to prosecute even novelists who create fictional characters
questioning the government's denialist position — has become one of
the main lines of attack against Turkey's bid to become the first
majority-Muslim country to join the European Union. Most of the 15
countries that have officially recognized the genocide are European
(with Switzerland and France even going so far as to pass over-the-
top laws making it a crime to deny the genocide).

Then there was the January murder of ethnic Armenian journalist Hrant
Dink in broad daylight on a busy Istanbul street. Dink's
assassination, at the hands of a Turkish nationalist, shocked the
world and led to a wave of anxious introspection in Turkey. Yet
Ankara quickly — and disastrously — concluded that the proper
response was to redouble its losing campaign to prevent foreign
governments from using the G-word.

High-level Turkish ministers were dispatched to Washington over the
last few months to warn that the resolution in Congress could force
them to close the crucial U.S. Air Force Base at Incirlik and could
imperil relations at a tipping-point moment for the Middle East. (The
exact same argument was used by President Clinton in October 2000 to
convince then-House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert to withdraw at the last
moment a similar bill, introduced by then-Rep. James Rogan (R-
Glendale), who was fighting a losing battle against Democratic
challenger Adam Schiff in an $11-million race.)

For Turks, the genocide is taboo for a host of reasons, but perhaps
the most important is that it occurred at the time of the founding of
modern Turkey under Kemal Ataturk, a man so sainted that insulting
his memory is still punishable by jail. So the battle continues, year
after year.

Earlier this month, Turkish lobbyists successfully scotched a United
Nations exhibit on the 13th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide
because it dared refer to the "1 million Armenians murdered in
Turkey." "Every time they try to censor discussion of the Armenian
genocide," a New York Times editorial observed, "they only bring
wider attention to the subject and link today's democratic Turkey
with the now distant crime." Turks even helped water down a U.S.
Senate resolution condemning Dink's murder.

Yet this flurry of recent developments doesn't adequately explain the
enduring potency of the recognition issue.

For that I will defer to the most recent U.S. ambassador to Armenia,
John Marshall Evans: "In the real world," Evans told a packed Beverly
Hilton hall of diaspora Armenians in February, "when an official
policy diverges wildly from what the broad public believes is self-
evident, that policy ceases to command respect."

Evans, a career, keep-your-head-down foreign service type, surveyed
the available literature on the events of 1915-23 before taking the
Armenian post in September 2004 and concluded that the U.S. position
of avoiding the word "genocide" diverged so wildly from the
historical consensus that it undermined Washington's moral authority.

He attempted to budge the policy from behind the scenes, but when
that failed he took a page from a man he knew well from his pre- and
post-communist postings to Prague — former Czech President Vaclav
Havel and decided to publicly "call things by their proper names."

So in February 2005, while speaking in California, Evans said: "I
will today call it the Armenian genocide. I think we, the U.S.
government, owe you, our fellow citizens, a more frank and honest way
of discussing this problem." For that remark he was recalled from his
post so that Washington could get back to the business of evading the
historical truth.

President Bush won't say "genocide" on Tuesday. In the words of
Condoleezza Rice, the administration's position is that Turks and
Armenians both need to "get over their past" without American help.

But this issue won't go away. Watching Rice's linguistic contortions
in response to harsh congressional interrogation by Schiff, who has
become the Armenians' great House champion, is profoundly
dispiriting; it makes one embarrassed to be American. Of all issues
subject to realpolitik compromises, mass slaughter of a national
minority surely should rank at the bottom of the list.

Hitler reportedly said, just before invading Poland, "Who, after all,
speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?" It's a chilling
reminder that forgetting is the first step in enabling future
genocides. Yet Hitler was eventually proved wrong. No temporal power
is strong enough to erase the eternal resonance of truth.

[email protected]

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-op-

welch22apr22,0,4862327.story?coll=la-opinion-rightrail

[Hovik]

Awesome, read this!

The New York Times

To the Editor:



On June 13, 2005, the International Association of Genocide Scholars sent a letter to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey in response to Turkey’s call for a “Joint Commission of Historians to study the historical facts.” Turkey's call was republished in a full page advertisement in the New York Times on Monday, 24 April 2007.



The Turkish proposal is one more attempt by the Turkish government to continue its ninety-year denial of the facts of the Armenian genocide. Turkey’s proposal is part of a multi-million dollar public relations smokescreen to defeat a Resolution in the U.S. House of Representatives to recognize and commemorate the Armenian genocide. Such recognition has already been made by 26 other countries, including many of our European allies, which have not given in to Turkish black-mail about stopping weapons sales and closing NATO military bases.



Prof. Gregory Stanton, Vice President, International Association of Genocide Scholars





Contact: Prof. Gregory Stanton

POB 809

Washington, DC 20044

E-mail: [email protected]

Phone: MWF 703-448-0222

TTh 540-654-1391

Evenings: 703-448-0222

Cell: 703-448-6665

[Joseph]

The New York Times

To the Editor:



On June 13, 2005, the International Association of Genocide Scholars sent a letter to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey in response to Turkey’s call for a “Joint Commission of Historians to study the historical facts.” Turkey's call was republished in a full page advertisement in the New York Times on Monday, 24 April 2007.



The Turkish proposal is one more attempt by the Turkish government to continue its ninety-year denial of the facts of the Armenian genocide. Turkey’s proposal is part of a multi-million dollar public relations smokescreen to defeat a Resolution in the U.S. House of Representatives to recognize and commemorate the Armenian genocide. Such recognition has already been made by 26 other countries, including many of our European allies, which have not given in to Turkish black-mail about stopping weapons sales and closing NATO military bases.



Prof. Gregory Stanton, Vice President, International Association of Genocide Scholars





Contact: Prof. Gregory Stanton

POB 809

Washington, DC 20044

E-mail: [email protected]

Phone: MWF 703-448-0222

TTh 540-654-1391

Evenings: 703-448-0222

Cell: 703-448-6665

Excellent. Finally, someone calling it what it is...black mail.