Armenian Genocide Resolution up for vote Oct 10, 2007

[101Scout]

The Turks has told the US if this becomes a Bill that the US will very much regret it. I'll go more into this later, but this little ordeal holds a serious problem down the road as the Dems heavily favor this Bill. I'll bring that into discussion here when I return.



[Only registered and activated users can see links]

OK of Armenian genocide bill predicted

By Richard Simon, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
October 3, 2007


WASHINGTON -- A top congressional Democratic leader predicted Tuesday that a controversial resolution calling the early 20th century killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks a genocide will pass the House. That expectation came despite Bush administration worries that the vote would offend Turkey, an important U.S. ally.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), a co-sponsor, made that prediction. He said he hoped for a vote before Thanksgiving.

FOR THE RECORD:
Armenian genocide: An article in Wednesday's Section A about a bill to recognize the killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks as genocide said, "Armenians say that 1.5 million of their people perished as part of a campaign to drive them out of eastern Turkey." The statement should not have been attributed solely to Armenians; historical evidence and research supports the accuracy of the term genocide. —


The resolution's supporters believed its prospects brightened after Democrats took control of Congress this year and Nancy Pelosi, who backs the measure, became speaker.

But the House has not acted even though the bill has gained 226 cosponsors, more than a majority. On Tuesday, however, the House Foreign Affairs Committee scheduled a vote on the resolution for Oct. 10. Lobbying, both for and against it, has picked up.

"We're encouraged," said Rep. George Radanovich (R-Mariposa), a chief sponsor. "This is not about the present government, nor about the Turkish people," Hoyer said in an interview. "It is about a tragic effort that was made by a previous government almost a century ago, in which we believe very strongly that a genocide was perpetrated on the Armenian people. If we are not to relive and see again those kinds of incidents, it's important that we remember them historically and make sure the world condemns such actions."

No date has been set for action in the Senate, where the resolution has 31 cosponsors, including Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). A Senate leadership aide said the chamber might consider the resolution once the House acts.

The resolution, which calls on the president to use the word genocide when discussing "the systematic and deliberate annihilation of 1.5 million Armenians," has been opposed by President Bush, a Republican, just as it was opposed by President Clinton, a Democrat.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, a Democratic presidential candidate, is a cosponsor of the resolution.

Eight former secretaries of state from Democratic and Republican administrations recently signed a letter to Pelosi warning that passage of the resolution "could endanger our national security interests in the region, including our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, and damage efforts to promote reconciliation between Armenia and Turkey."

[101Scout]

Now .... Turkey's threats to the US.


[Only registered and activated users can see links]

Turkey may cut support to U.S. over Armenia bill-MP


REUTERS

2:40 a.m. October 8, 2007

ANKARA – Turkey may cut logistic support to U.S. troops in Iraq if the U.S. Congress backs a bill branding as genocide the 1915 massacres of Armenians by Ottoman Turks, a senior ruling AK Party lawmaker was quoted as saying on Monday.

Congress's Foreign Affairs Committee is expected to approve on Wednesday a bill on the genocide issue and speaker Nancy Pelosi, a known supporter of the Armenian cause, could then decide to bring it to the House floor for a vote.

Turkey, a NATO ally of Washington, strongly denies Armenian claims, backed by many Western historians and a number of foreign parliaments, that up to 1.5 million ethnic Armenians suffered genocide at Turkish hands during World War One.

It says many Muslim Turks as well as Christian Armenians died in inter-ethnic conflict as the Ottoman Empire collapsed.

'Don't accept this bill. If you do, we will be obliged to do many things we do not want to do,' the top-selling Hurriyet daily quoted AK Party deputy leader Egemen Bagis as saying.

'For example, the Americans depend on Turkey for a large part of their logistical support in Iraq. We would be obliged to to cut this support,' he was quoted as saying.

Bagis was speaking in a personal capacity, but Turkey's government has many times urged foreign countries, including the United States, not to pass such resolutions, saying historians, not politicians, should judge historic events.

Last year, Turkey froze military and some commercial cooperation with France after the French National Assembly backed a bill that would make it a crime to deny the Armenian genocide, although the bill never became law.

U.S. forces in both Iraq and Afghanistan get many of their supplies via the Incirlik military base in southern Turkey.

Contacted by Reuters, Bagis declined to say what specific measures Turkey might take but said: 'This bill might please Armenian Americans for a few days but it would definitely have a long-lasting negative effect on the relationship between two strategic allies.'

Bagis noted in his comments to Hurriyet that Turkish public opinion has already turned very anti-American due to the Iraq war and Washington's failure to crack down on Kurdish rebels who use northern Iraq as a base from which to attack Turkey.

'If the bill passes, pressure from public opinion (to take action against U.S. interests) will be very strong,' he said.

Bagis left for Washington with two other Turkish lawmakers on Monday to lobby Congress to drop the bill.

Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan raised Turkey's concerns with U.S. President George W. Bush in a telephone conversation last Friday. The Bush administration is opposed to the bill but Congress is now dominated by its Democratic

[101Scout]

The resolution passed in the House today. Not exact on the vote count, I think it was 27-21.

Now, the part I was speaking about as this resolution climbs the ladder to become a Bill is...... as Turkey gears up to invade Iraq, and after voicing it's anger directly to Congress of what it will do if Congress passes this into a Bill, that Turkey will basically make the US sorry for these actions. I now see how this growing turmoil will fall into the laps of the Dems who mainly promoted this resolution.

As Iraq's failure becomes the Dem's problem / fault, Turkey will push Iraq into a total nightmare. So, regardless of what, as the Dems take back the oval office, all things wrong in the ME will befall the Dems. This very resolution will more than likely haunt the Dems (110th Congress) as Turkey cuts cooperation/ties with the US and pushes war in Iraq to the ultimate. The Repukes will make sure of this rhetoric. It all will fall back on this very resolution and how the Dems lost not only Iraq but the entire ME.... but also helped terrorism to grow and succeed.

[101Scout]

Turkey has responded to the house committee vote on the resolution by pulling it's embassador to the US. It's still contemplating invasion on the PKK in N Iraq as well. The next vote on this will be in the House mid Nov.



[Only registered and activated users can see links]

Before recalling its ambassador, the Turkish government cautioned that relations with its NATO ally would be harmed by the U.S. committee's decision. The non-binding resolution now goes to the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives, where Democratic leaders say there will be a vote by mid-November.

[Aslan]

Methinks Turkey has learned from the best of them - the US - in how to rattle the sabers to justify an occupation. Oh, and (surprise!) there's OIL in Kurdistan....

:SHF: