House Democrats are slowly losing support for a resolution that would label mass killings nine decades ago as genocide committed by Turkey.
At least 10 sponsors of the measure — eight of them Democrats — have removed their names from the resolution inthe past few days following warnings from State Department officials and the Turkish government that its passage would threaten relations between the two allies.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., and Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., whose district is home to an Armenian community, have been leading the fight to pass the resolution.
Hoyer acknowledged that the waning enthusiasm among members of the House could scotch plans to vote on the resolution any time soon. Initially, Hoyer promised to take up the measure by Nov. 16.
“There are a lot of people who are revisiting their position,” Hoyer said.
Six Democrats and one Republican lined up at the clerk’s desk in the well of the House late Monday, waiting their turns to strip their names from the resolution, which would direct the president to recognize the killings as genocide.
One of the lead sponsors, Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., said she has decided not to vote for the resolution because it is “highly destabilizing” to the region. She left her name on the measure, though, saying that she thinks genocide was committed but that “Congress acting now is incendiary.”
Rep. Lincoln Davis, D-Tenn., withdrew his sponsorship “because it has become a foreign-affairs political statement that I don’t want to participate in.”
House Democratic leaders last week pushed forward with plans to vote on the resolution despite warnings from President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who said passage would harm U.S. relations with Turkey, which abuts Iraq and Iran and whose government permits the flow of U.S troops and supplies across its borders.
Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., who endeared himself to the Democratic leadership when he defeated a Republican incumbent in 2000, sponsored the bill. His district includes a large base of Armenian constituents.
Rep. Wally Herger, R-Calif., who removed his name from the resolution Monday, said sponsors like the idea of condemning the killings, “but I think many people now realize we shouldn’t be sticking our finger in the eye of someone who is an ally.”
