> October 26, 2007
> U.S. and Turkey Thwart Armenian Genocide Bill
> By CARL HULSE
> WA****NGTON, Oct. 25 - With backing from more than half of the House
> this summer, proponents of a resolution condemning the Armenian
> genocide were confident that they would finally prevail in their
> quest for Congressional recognition.
> Adding to their optimism, Speaker Nancy Pelosi was a longtime backer
> of the resolution, which had been pushed mainly by her fellow
> Californians, and was committed to bringing it to a House vote.
>
> But sup****ters of the measure were not prepared for the vehement
> opposition of two powerful governments - Turkey, the successor state
> to the Ottoman Empire, which historians say conducted the genocide,
> and the United States, which needs Turkey's help in Iraq. Their
> combined resistance caused the resolution to falter, embarrassing the
> speaker on a high-profile foreign policy front.
> On Thursday, sup****ters surrendered, at least for now, telling Ms.
> Pelosi they were willing to wait until next year. "We believe that a
> large majority of our colleagues want to sup****t a resolution
> recognizing the genocide on the House floor and that they will do so,
> provided the timing is more favorable," the four chief sponsors said
> in a letter to Ms. Pelosi.
> The faltering of the push to denounce the genocide illustrates what
> can happen when domestic politics collide with international affairs
> and how treacherous that can be for Congressional leaders like Ms.
> Pelosi, who came under criticism this year for a trip to Syria. It
> also turned a near triumph into a disappointment for those who
> believe Congress has a responsibility to send a message on past
> inhumanities to prevent future ones.
> "We certainly thought it would be a very tough fight, but it was a
> much more lopsided one than we expected," said Representative Adam B.
> Schiff, a California Democrat and a main sponsor of the bill. Once
> Democrats gained control of Congress in January, sup****ters of the
> measure mobilized, seeing a way clear to the final vote that had
> eluded them because of opposition first from the Clinton
> administration and then from the Bush White House.
> Ms. Pelosi as well as Representative Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, the
> new majority leader, were dedicated proponents of the resolution that
> would put the House on record as defining the deaths of an estimated
> 1.5 million Armenians in 1915 as genocide. The crisis in Darfur, in
> Sudan, had raised public consciousness about genocide as well.
>
> "This issue had a constituency, and there was a lot of momentum due
> to the switch in leader****p and Darfur," said Aram Hamparian,
> executive director of the Armenian National Committee of America.
>
> It did not hurt that Armenians are an influential bloc in California,
> Ms. Pelosi's home, and that the resolution was a top priority of
> California House members of both parties, including Mr. Schiff and
> two other Democrats, Brad Sherman and Anna G. Eshoo. Ms. Eshoo is a
> lawmaker of Armenian heritage who is a close friend of Ms. Pelosi's.
>
> Mr. Sherman said the speaker's decision to pledge a vote by the full
> House was not about personal relation****ps but about principle. "You
> don't have to have a special relation****p with this speaker to get
> her to be in favor of recognizing genocide," he said.
>
> While the backers of the resolution pressed ahead, the Turkish
> government also went to work, hiring a lobbying team to raise
> concerns about the potential backlash in Turkey if the resolution was
> approved, particularly when Turkey is a staging ground for the Iraq
> war.
> The Turkish government has resisted the characterization of a
> genocide, seeing the deaths as among the many tragic losses in a time
> of brutal conflict. But most of the lobbying against the resolution
> centered on the need not to antagonize Turkey at a time when it was
> of crucial strategic value.
> Among those carrying that message was Representative John P. Murtha,
> a Pennsylvania Democrat and a close ally of Ms. Pelosi's, who began
> warning her in February against the bill.
>
> "I explained what the ramifications were from a military standpoint,
> but she said she felt compelled to do it," said Mr. Murtha, who
> welcomed Thursday's decision. By midsummer, the advocates had 225
> sponsors, more than the minimum of 218 needed to assure passage. But
> they refrained from pu****ng for a vote because Turkey was having its
> own national elections. Instead, they aimed for the fall.
> Encouraged to consider the bill, the Foreign Affairs Committee
> approved it on Oct. 10, but by a relatively narrow 27-to-21 vote,
> because lawmakers were well aware that the measure could reach the
> floor this year.
> Mr. Bush and the Turkish government intensified their opposition and
> within days, co-sponsors of both parties began abandoning the
> resolution.
> Ms. Pelosi said it was the responsibility of its backers to secure
> the needed votes. "This is the legislative process," she told
> re****ters last week when asked about the furor. Its backers began
> re*****sing their strategy and one result was the letter to the
> speaker on Thursday.
> Even some of Ms. Pelosi's allies said the bill's withdrawal, while an
> embarrassment, may well have averted a larger problem for her had the
> proposal been approved, setting off problems with Turkey. Advocates
> of the bill predicted that Congress would eventually regret backing
> off in the face of a threatened backlash from an ally. "This sets a
> terrible example," Mr. Hamparian said.
|
