DECISION TIME: US CONGRESS CLOSES IN ON POSSIBLE HR 106 VOTE
- Turkey warned the United States Tuesday that bilateral ties will suffer badly if US lawmakers adopt a bill (HR 106) recognizing the Ottoman massacres of Armenians as genocide.
In a letter to his US counterpart George W. Bush, new Turkish President Abdullah Gul “drew attention to the serious problems that will emerge in bilateral relations if the bill is adopted,” his office said in a statement.
A senior member of the ruling Justice and Development Party has signaled that Ankara could consider barring the United States from a key military base in southern Turkey, which US troops currently use to transport non-combat material to Iraq and Afghanistan.
Both countries are NATO members, though US operations in Iraq are conducted outside of the transatlantic alliance.
The US House Foreign Affairs Committee is expected to debate the genocide bill on Wednesday and if it is approved, Speaker Nancy Pelosi could put it to a vote.
While Turkish lobbyists warn the US, Armenian Genocide recognition activists call on the congress to perform a moral duty.
In a letter to Committee chairman Tom Lantos, the Armenian Assembly of America (www.aaainc.org) Executive Director Bryan Ardouny wrote:
“Congress should no more stand for this denial then it does for the Iranian government's denial of the Holocaust. Denial is what Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel (who also supports affirmation of the Armenian Genocide) calls a ‘double killing,’ because it seeks to rehabilitate the perpetrators and demonize the victims.”
The White House, wary of the bill's likely impact on ties with a key Muslim ally, has opposed the text. The Democrat-controlled Congress is expected to give it strong backing, however.
A similar draft to the resolution before Congress was withdrawn from the House floor in October 2000 after then president Bill Clinton intervened.
Each year Armenians commemorate the massacres Bush has issued statements showing his support, though he has stopped short of calling them genocide.
“The Turkish lobby has launched an active campaign to block the resolution. Erdogan’s phone conversation with Bush, talks between the Turkish Foreign Minister and Israeli President, and finally, the letter of eight former Secretaries of State speak of Turkey’s concern about the possible passage of the H.Res.106. However, the Armenian National Committee of America is wide awake and will not allow torpedoing of the vote. Eight former Secretaries of State have eight votes; the Armenian community has much more votes. This fact should be taken into account on the threshold of presidential and congressional elections in 2008,” ARF Bureau’s Hay Dat and Political Affairs Office Director, Kiro Manoyan told a news conference in Yerevan on October 8th.
Turkey categorically rejects claims by Armenians that 1.5 million of them died in systematic deportations and killings during 1915-1917 as the Ottoman Empire was breaking up.
Several countries have recognized the killings as genocide, and Turkey has responded by temporarily downgrading its political and economic ties with some of them.
Turkey maintains that 300,000 Armenians and at least as many Turks died in civil strife when Armenians took up arms for independence in eastern Anatolia and sided with Russian troops invading the crumbling Ottoman Empire during World War I.
----The Armenian Assembly of America has prepared a vide in support of HR 106. See the video below.
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Turkey warned the United States Tuesday that bilateral ties will suffer badly if US lawmakers adopt a bill (HR 106) recognizing the Ottoman massacres of Armenians as genocide.
In a letter to his US counterpart ...BIG STEP CLOSER: GENOCIDE RESOLUTION GETS APPROVAL OF US HOUSE COMMITTEE
Members of this committee have a sobering choice to make. We have to weigh the desire to express our solidarity with the Armenian people and to condemn this historic nightmare through the use of the word ...HR 106 FALLOUT: TURKEY RECALLS US AMBASSADOR
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DECISION TIME: US CONGRESS CLOSES IN ON POSSIBLE HR 106 VOTE
HOSPITALITY WITH CAUTION?: MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD TO VISIT YEREVAN
Richard Giragosian and John HughesAQUA DANCING: SQUARE’S FOUNTAINS RETURN WITH AN EVEN MORE GRACEFUL DANCE
HR 106 FALLOUT: TURKEY RECALLS US AMBASSADOR
BIG STEP CLOSER: GENOCIDE RESOLUTION GETS APPROVAL OF US HOUSE COMMITTEE
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FROM METSAMOR UPWARD: A LOOK BACK AT SPACE-MINDED ARMENIANS
- 1813 The Russian-Persian Treaty is signed at Fort Gyulistan (Artsakh). It ended the war that had started in 1804. According to the agreement, Persia recognizes the provinces of Artsakh, Gyandja, Shaki, Shoragual, Talish, Derbent, Ghoobay, Pambak, Zangezoor, Shirvan, Baku, Loree and Shamshadin as belonging to the Russian Empire.
- 1882 Birth of literary critic Hovhanness Avagyan. He died in 1959.
- 1895 Rebellion breaks out at Zeitoon against Turkish administrative malpractices.
- 1961 The Armenian SSR decides to rename the Kotayk, Abovian and Adini regions to Ani region.
- 1962 Diasporan Armenians begin a new repatriation program to Armenia.
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