Should the United States officially recognize the massacre of 1.5 million Armenians in Turkey that occurred more than 90 years ago?
The House is preparing to vote for the first time to label the killings as a genocide committed by the former Ottoman Empire in Turkey.
But opponents, chief among them President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, warn that passage of such a resolution would harm U.S. relations with Turkey, a critical ally that abuts Iraq and Iran and whose government permits the flow of U.S troops and supplies across its borders.
Rice, who personally lobbied House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer, D-Md., in his Capitol Hill office last week, went so far as to collect letters from her seven Republican and Democratic predecessors condemning the resolution.
Hoyer said he also met with the Turkish ambassador, who said passage of the resolution “would have an impact on relations” between the U.S. and Turkey, which denies there was a genocide.
Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush refrained from using the word genocide “out of deference to Turkish sentiments on the matter,” said Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Calif., chairman of the Foreign Affairs panel, which approved the resolution by a vote of 27-21 on Wednesday evening.
Bush said Wednesday the resolution is “not the right response to these historic mass killings, and its passage would do great harm to our relations with a key ally in NATO and in the global war on terror.”
The resolution has never been considered before the entire House, and many warn it will stir up anti-U.S. sentiment in Turkey.
Hoyer, a proponent of the resolution, said the House would nonetheless consider it before it breaks for a short recess on Nov. 16.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., also supports the resolution. Her district is home to a long-established Armenian community.
At the Foreign Affairs Committee meeting, Republican member Dan Burton, of Indiana, warned that passing the resolution could destabilize the Middle East.
“Our strongest ally in the area is Turkey, and it just doesn’t make sense to me that we’re going to cut our nose off and shoot ourselves in the foot at a time when we need this critical ally,” he said.
Democrat Gary Ackerman, D-N.Y., countered, “The timing was bad for Armenia in 1915 and nothing is going to change that, either.”
