Tag: “Genocide” Resolution

Bill on “Armenian Genocide” is a cash cow for some lawmakers and Armenian Diaspora

[ 11 Feb 2010 12:23 ]

Washington. Isabel Levine – APA. “Every year the US Congress and Senate try introducing resolutions on the so called Armenian Genocide.

I don’t think HR 252 (bill about recognition of “genocide”) will pass. Because this is a cash cow for some lawmakers and for Armenian Diaspora” – told in an interview with APA’s Washington correspondent Karahan Mete, one of the leaders of Turkish Diaspora in USA.

In response to those congressmen, who are preparing to discuss the HR 252 next month at US Congress, Mr. Mete mentioned that, this is not first time US lawmaker pressing an “unethical, immoral, undemocratic law or resolution”:

“US lawmakers are passing or attempt to pass an alleged Armenian genocide resolution are violating international law”.

According to him, unfortunately, some of the Jewish organizations in US are trying to bring the “Armenian Genocide” phenomena at the same level as the Holocaust: “I don’t see any similarity between these two events except some falsifications”.

Mr. Mete also talked about the challenges of Turkish Diaspora in USA.
“Our problem is not with Armenians around world. Our problem is with the Armenian Diaspora. We should distinguish Armenians that are part of the Diaspora, from regular Armenian citizens. I am talking from my experience. I would say that Armenian people are very nice and kind; specially young and educated Armenians” – he added.

The member of Turkish Diaspora also complained about Turkish Government.
“Unfortunately we are working with a handful of people to overcome on this accusation (Armenian Genocide). This cannot generate the result we desire. In order to get result that we desire, we should educate our people. Educating Turkish citizens falls under government jurisdiction. Unfortunately the Turkish government has no national plan on how to deal with this issue. Past and present Turkish government ran and keeps running to crisis after crisis like a fire truck. Our opponents know that and keep starting fires many places to make us overwhelmed”.

As regards with Diaspora activities, Mr.Mete said that, they are not doing enough.
“What we need to do and how we need to do it is key issue for solving the problem. It will take hundreds of pages for me to layout this strategy. A short explanation might cause some misunderstandings or confusions; therefore I am reluctant elaborate”.

According to him, the other question is why the US and other countries are responding Armenian claims enthusiastically.

“Because the Turkish independence war is not over yet; Independence war is continuing with different from. The new form of the war is propaganda war, which we do not know how to fight. The Armenian genocide phenomena are a tool for some of this country to build negative international public opinion against Turkey. When time comes to invade and occupy and divide the Turkey they have already needed public support to justify their action” – he answered.

He stressed that, therefore Turks need to see and analyze the Armenian phenomena and other issues in a big context.
“We are charging individual issues like a bull charging a red cape. Each time the bull charges the red cape he gets another spear in his back, and eventually gets killed. Each time the bull charges thinking that time is the time I will destroy the obstacle. That is what the bullfighter wants him to do; he can stab him on and on until he is dead. Unfortunately our strategy for dealing with international problems is similar to this bull fight” –he mentioned.
In the meanwhile the meeting scheduled for today between the Secretary of State Hillary Klinton and key figures of Armenian Diaspora was cancelled. The State Department press-service explained to APA the reason of the cancellation as weather conditions in Washington DC.

February 11, 2010
U.S. House Panel Schedules Vote On Armenian “Genocide” Bill

U.S. — The early morning sun rises behind the US Capitol Building in Washington, DC, 22Oct2009

05.02.2010

Emil Danielyan

A key committee of the U.S. House of Representatives will vote early next month on a resolution urging President Barack Obama to describe the 1915 mass killings and deportations of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire as genocide, Armenian-American leaders said on Friday.

The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA), said Howard Berman, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has scheduled the vote for March 4. The ANCA chairman, Ken Hachikian, thanked the California Democrat for taking what he called a “bold step.”

Officials from the Armenian Assembly of America, the other major Armenian lobby group in Washington, confirmed the information. The Assembly was due to officially announce it later in the day.

“We look forward to working with the Chairman and all our friends on the Committee from both parties to facilitate passage of this critical piece of human rights legislation by both this panel and the full House of Representatives,” Hachikian said in a statement. “Our grassroots activists are mobilized to help achieve the success of this effort.”

The draft resolution introduced by pro-Armenian legislators a year ago urges Obama to “accurately characterize the systematic and deliberate annihilation of 1,500,000 Armenians as genocide.” Its progress in the House of Representatives stalled in 2009 amid an intensifying dialogue between Armenia and Turkey that culminated in the signing last October of two “protocols” on normalizing relations between the two nations.

The reported scheduling of the House committee vote will add a new twist to Washington’s efforts to secure the protocols’ ratification by the Armenian and Turkish parliaments. Some observers expect the Obama administration to use the prospect of genocide recognition in its efforts to eliminate ratification conditions set by the Turkish government.

Ankara has gone to great lengths in the past to prevent similar genocide resolutions from reaching the House floor. The House Foreign Affairs Committee approved such legislation in 2000, 2002 and 2007.

The upcoming committee vote could further complicate Turkey’s efforts to win U.S. support over a recent Armenian Constitutional Court ruling which the Turks say was at odds with the letter and spirit of the protocols. A top Turkish diplomat will reportedly visit Washington for that purpose in the coming days.

Armenia — Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian (L) talks to visiting U.S. Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg on February 4 2010.

Senior U.S. State Department officials have already dismissed, however, the Turkish protests against the court’s conclusion that the protocols can not stop Yerevan from seeking broader international recognition of the Armenian genocide. According to official Armenian sources, Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg reaffirmed that position during a visit to Yerevan on Thursday.

Steinberg on Friday described his talks with President Serzh Sarkisian as “extremely productive and substantive.” He also urged Ankara and Yerevan to move forward on protocol ratification, the AFP news agency reported.

“I very much hope that both Armenia and Turkey will move forward. I don’t think delay is in anybody’s interest,” Steinberg told journalists in Tbilisi.

“There’s a very strong commitment on behalf of the United States to work with Armenia and Turkey to see the ratification of the protocols,” he said.

Armenian-American leaders say the near-term passage of the genocide bill, vehemently opposed by the Turkish government, hinges, in large measure, on whether Turkey’s parliament will endorse the protocols. As one of them told RFE/RL recently, “If Turkey does not ratify the protocols or open the border [with Armenia] on time, the resolution will be relatively easy to pass.”

https://www.azatutyun.am/a/1950012.html

February 5, 2010
Armenian “Genocide” Resolution Introduced In U.S. Senate

U.S. — The Dome of The Capitol Building. Note the flag at the base of the dome (right) and the pole above the Senate Chamber (left, no flag means the Senate is not in session), 2006

22.10.2009

Emil Danielyan

Two members of the U.S. Senate have introduced legislation calling on President Barack Obama to officially term the 1915-1918 mass killings and deportations of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire a genocide.

The resolution drafted by Senators Robert Menendez and John Ensign urges him to “accurately characterize the systematic and deliberate annihilation of 1,500,000 Armenians as genocide.”

“One and a half million Armenians experienced Hell on Earth, and to sweep their plight under the rug is to insult their memories and their descendants,” Menendez said as he presented the resolution on Wednesday. “It is long past time that our nation help set the historical record straight and provide a foundation of understanding that helps prevent future atrocities.”

“By joining together and affirming that genocide was committed on the Armenian people, we send a strong message to the international community that we will not turn a blind eye to the crimes of the past simply because they are in the past,” Ensign said for his part.

A similar bill was circulated by other pro-Armenian lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives early this year. It has yet to reach the House floor despite being co-sponsored by over 130 lawmakers and tacitly endorsed by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a longtime supporter of Armenian issues.

Progress of the House bill stalled this spring amid an intensifying dialogue between Armenia and Turkey. Obama cited the Turkish-Armenian rapprochement when he backtracked on his campaign pledge to reaffirm his recognition of the Armenian genocide once in office, in an April 24 statement on the 94th anniversary of the massacres. His stance angered the influential Armenian-American community that had overwhelmingly backed his presidential bid.

Obama’s failure to use the word “genocide” was clearly facilitated by the April 22 announcement of a U.S.-brokered “roadmap” to normalizing Turkish-Armenian relations. As part of that roadmap, Armenia and Turkey signed earlier this month agreements on establishing diplomatic relations and reopening their border.

The agreements, strongly supported by the Obama administration, have split the Armenian Americans and, in particular, their two main advocacy groups that have for decades lobbied for genocide recognition. One of them, the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA), has been at the forefront of Diaspora criticism of the deal.

The ANCA and other critics are especially opposed to Ankara’s and Yerevan’s plans to set up a commission tasked with looking into the 1915 massacres. They say the very existence of such a body would discourage the United States and other countries from recognizing what many historians consider the first genocide of the 20th century.

U.S. — Democratic Senator from New Jersey Robert Menendez, 05Aug2009

Menendez condemned the planned historical commission as an “insult to the Armenian people” in a speech at an ANCA event organized earlier this month. The New Jersey Democrat had earlier blocked the congressional approval of former President George W. Bush’s choice of a new U.S. ambassador to Armenia, in protest against the dismissal of the previous envoy, John Evans. The latter is believed to have been recalled to Washington because of publicly describing the slaughter of Ottoman Armenians as genocide.

Turkish pundits welcoming the deal agree that Ankara will now find it easier to ward off embarrassing genocide resolutions in the U.S. and elsewhere. Writing in “Hurriyet Daily News” on October 13, veteran commentator Mehmet Ali Birand said: “It will be very difficult for Armenian representatives to go before the U.S. Congress or the French Senate and ask for pressure on Turkey regarding genocide and the acceptance thereof. And it will become impossible for them to go before parliaments of countries that have committed genocide themselves and ask for Ankara’s punishment.”

“We will no longer be on pins and needles on the April 24s and ask ‘What will the U.S. Congress do?’ U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the rear row of this picture is our biggest guarantor,” another columnist, Cuneyt Ulsever, wrote in an op-ed article published by the English-language paper the previous day.

President Serzh Sarkisian and other Armenian leaders insist that the historical commission would not seek to determine whether the 1915 killings constituted genocide and would thus not thwart genocide recognition. Their policy on Turkey enjoys the backing of some of the leading Diaspora organizations, notably the Armenian Assembly of America.

The Assembly on Wednesday joined the ANCA in welcoming the genocide resolution submitted to the Senate. “The Assembly will not rest until Armenian Genocide denial is defeated,” Bryan Ardouny, the lobbying group’s executive director, said in a statement.

Another Armenian-American leader familiar with congressional affairs, who asked not to be identified, also hailed the Menendez-Ensign bill, while noting that the Senate is unlikely to approve it soon. “It shows that the [Turkish-Armenian] protocols and U.S. reaffirmation of the Armenian Genocide are not connected, even though it has little chance of passing Senate this year,” he told RFE/RL. “Senate is a harder mountain for us to climb. But next year is an election year, and there are other factors that will help.”

Turning to the genocide recognition push in the House of Representatives, he said, “My guess is that it will not get serious until after April of next year, and people will see how Turkey performs. If Turkey does not ratify the protocols or open the border [with Armenia] on time, the resolution will be relatively easy to pass.”

“Even if Turkey does perform, the resolution should pass the House, as the U.S. has been clear on no linkage and despite some wishful thinking, the [historical] commission actually agreed to is not to determine whether or not there was genocide,” added the leader.

https://www.azatutyun.am/a/1858487.html

October 22, 2009