{"id":17360,"date":"2010-03-06T14:29:11","date_gmt":"2010-03-06T14:29:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turkishforum.com.tr\/en\/content\/?p=17360"},"modified":"2023-04-06T14:01:31","modified_gmt":"2023-04-06T11:01:31","slug":"armenia-resolution-wont-get-full-u-s-house-vote-aide-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2010\/03\/06\/armenia-resolution-wont-get-full-u-s-house-vote-aide-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Armenia Resolution Won\u2019t Get Full U.S. House Vote, Aide Says"},"content":{"rendered":"

March 06, 2010, 12:01 AM EST<\/p>\n

By Peter S. Green and James Rowley<\/p>\n

March 6 (Bloomberg) — Democratic lawmakers bowed to concerns expressed by the Obama administration and agreed not to schedule a full House vote on a resolution that labels as genocide the killing of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey, a congressional aide said.<\/p>\n

House leaders have no plans at this time for a chamber vote on the measure, which a House committee approved on March 4, the House Democratic leadership aide said yesterday. The aide spoke on the condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n

The resolution passed the House Foreign Affairs Committee on a 23-22 vote. Turkey responded by recalling its ambassador in Washington, Namik Tan, for consultations.<\/p>\n

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had spoken out against a full House vote on March 4 while attending a conference in Costa Rica. She reiterated yesterday that President Barack Obama\u2019s administration \u201cstrongly opposes the resolution.\u201d<\/p>\n

A full House vote would \u201cimpede the normalization process between Turkey and Armenia,\u201d State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said in Washington yesterday before word surfaced of the leadership\u2019s decision. \u201cThe best way for Turkey and Armenia to address their shared past is through ongoing negotiations,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The measure says the Ottoman Empire, the predecessor of modern-day Turkey, killed 1.5 million ethnic Armenians from 1915 to 1923. It asks the president to ensure that U.S. foreign policy reflects \u201cappropriate understanding\u201d of the atrocity and \u201cthe consequences of the failure to realize a just resolution.\u201d<\/p>\n

Similar Recall<\/p>\n

Turkey, a U.S. ally and NATO member, had recalled its U.S. ambassador for a brief period in protest to a similar resolution passed by a House committee in 2007. That measure never came up for a full House vote.<\/p>\n

Turkish President Abdullah Gul said on his Web site that the March 4 committee vote was \u201cone-sided and remote from historical realities,\u201d and would hurt talks with Armenia.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve worked at every level with the American administration on a variety of issues and we\u2019ve always supported Mr. Obama\u2019s vision of peace,\u201d Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said in Ankara yesterday. \u201cWe don\u2019t expect this contribution of ours to be sacrificed to a few local political games.\u201d<\/p>\n

The resolution showed a lack of \u201cstrategic vision\u201d on the part of U.S. lawmakers who supported it, Davutoglu said.<\/p>\n

Iranian Trade<\/p>\n

Turkey has been expanding trade with Iran and Obama in December called the country an \u201cimportant player\u201d in efforts to curb Iran\u2019s nuclear program.<\/p>\n

Turkey\u2019s border and its trade relationship with Iran makes Turkish support vital for U.S. efforts to use sanctions to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon, said Bulent Aliriza, Director of the Turkey Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.<\/p>\n

While the Armenia-related resolution came from Congress and not the administration, Turkey may not see any difference, further hampering U.S. efforts to impose sanctions on Iran, said Henri Barkey, a fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is clearly very likely is that on Iran we are going to get less cooperation from them,\u201d Barkey said before the aide disclosed that the resolution won\u2019t get a full House vote.<\/p>\n

Turkey asserts that the resolution hurts Turkish and Armenian efforts to renew diplomatic relations that were broken over Armenia\u2019s military intervention in Azerbaijan\u2019s Nagorno- Karabakh region following the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union.<\/p>\n

Clinton\u2019s Intervention<\/p>\n

Turkey and Armenia agreed in October to renew relations after Clinton helped the countries overcome a last-minute dispute before a signing ceremony in Zurich. Under the accords, which are waiting to be approved by Turkey\u2019s parliament, a historical commission would investigate the killings.<\/p>\n

After the French parliament in 2006 approved legislation making it criminal to deny that a genocide took place, Turkey said France had done \u201cirreparable damage\u201d to relations between the two countries.<\/p>\n

The chairman of the Armenian National Committee of America, a lobbying group in Washington, praised the House committee shortly after it passed its genocide resolution. \u201cYou cannot have a relationship or a reconciliation based upon lies,\u201d Kenneth Hachikian said in an interview after the vote. \u201cTurkey can\u2019t come to the table and say let\u2019s reconcile but we deny what the rest of the world acknowledges.\u201d<\/p>\n

The House resolution noted that England, France and Russia called the killings a crime against humanity at the time, and that Turkey\u2019s own government indicted the leaders of the massacres after World War I.<\/p>\n

–With assistance from Hans Nichols in Washington and Steve Bryant in Ankara. Editors: Don Frederick, Mike Millard.<\/p>\n

-0- Mar\/06\/2010 05:00 GMT<\/p>\n

To contact the reporters on this story: Peter S. Green in Washington at psgreen@bloomberg.net; James Rowley in Washington at jarowley@bloomberg.net<\/p>\n

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jim Kirk at jkirk12@bloomberg.net<\/p>\n

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https:\/\/www.economist.com\/united-states\/2010\/03\/05\/past-imperfect-present-tense<\/span>
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The Armenian genocide<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n
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\nPast imperfect, present tense<\/strong>
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Mar 5th 2010 | NEW YORK
\nFrom Economist.com<\/div>\n

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Congress reconsiders America’s official position on the Armenian genocide<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
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TWO questions faced an American congressional panel on Thursday March 5th as it considered the mass killings of Armenians during and after the first world war by forces of the Ottoman Empire. First, was it genocide? The historical debate is as hot, and unsettled, as ever. Armenians continue to insist that it was the first genocide of the twentieth century, while Turks call the killings merely part of the chaos of the break-up of empire.<\/span><\/div>\n
But the second question on the minds of congressmen in the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives was more urgent. What is more important, fidelity to history or concern for the present? The vote took place as warming relations between Turkey and Armenia have cooled again and those between Turkey and America are under increasing strain over Iran, Israel and other affairs in the region. Turkish diplomats and politicians gave warning before the vote that the consequences would be felt across the range of issues of shared concern to the two countries. In the end the panel narrowly decided against pragmatism and chose to set straight the historical records. A resolution recognising the killings as genocide was sent to the House by a vote of 23 to 22.<\/span><\/div>\n
When the same House committee passed a “genocide” resolution in 2007 the White House urged that the vote be scrapped. But this year, it had come with a twist; Barack Obama had promised during his election campaign to recognise the event as genocide. But before the vote his advisers said that while he acknowledges a genocide personally, he urged unsuccessfully that official interpretation be left to the parties involved. Congress is far more sensitive to lobbying than the president and to small but highly motivated groups of voters. Lobbyists working for both Armenians and Turks had been active before the vote and Armenians are concentrated in several Californian districts.<\/span><\/div>\n
But no fashioner of foreign policy–among whom the president is by far the most important–can ignore the strategic importance of Turkey. It is a vital American ally and has the second-biggest army in NATO. The country is home to an important American air base and is a crucial supply route for America\u2019s forces in Iraq. Relations were difficult even before the beginning of the war in Iraq in 2003. The mildly Islamist government denied the Americans the ability to open a second front in Iraq through Turkey. Turkey\u2019s relationship with Israel has deteriorated too. Israel’s two recent wars, in Lebanon and Gaza, have outraged Turkish public opinion. Mr Obama’s more even-handed approach to the Israel-Palestine conflict has improved America\u2019s reputation in Turkey, but not by much.<\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Turkey itself is caught between forces that make the Armenia issue potentially dangerous. The country’s secular, Western-oriented politicians, among others, have been discouraged by the strict terms offered by the European Union for eventual Turkish membership. In part as a result there has been a gradual realignment in Turkish foreign policy towards its more immediate neighbours. Turkey’s government seeks peaceful relations with countries at its borders, which has meant some cosying up to Iran, despite the fact that most of Turkey’s NATO allies are pushing for more sanctions against the Islamic republic over its alleged efforts to obtain nuclear weapons.<\/span><\/div>\n
The vote comes at a sensitive time, too, for Turkey’s relations with Armenia. The pair have been at odds since Turkey closed the border in 1993, during Armenia’s war with Turkey’s ethnic cousins in Azerbaijan. Last year, protocols were agreed that foresaw an establishment of diplomatic relations and an opening of the border. But Armenia\u2019s highest court then declared that the protocols were not in line with Armenia’s constitutionally mandated policy that foreign affairs conform to the Armenian view of the genocide. Turkey responded with fury and the protocols were endangered. The American vote will anger Turkey further and perhaps make it even more inclined to turn away from Europe, America and Armenia in favour of its Islamic neighbours.<\/span><\/div>\n
One hope is that Turkish anger will subside if, as happened in 2007, the House leadership stops the resolution from reaching a full vote. It may do so again. Turkey recalled its ambassador after Thursday’s vote just as in 2007. The Turkish government, in a spat with the country’s nationalist army, may play the foreign-insult card to bolster its domestic strength. But ultimately the Turks are unlikely to weaken their relationship with America lightly.<\/span><\/div>\n

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