By Kevin Kim
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East
YEREVAN, Armenia – On Thursday, supporters of a bill in the US Congress labeling 1915 mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks as “genocide” have agreed to postpone the measure.
In early October, the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee passed the bill censuring World War I killing of Armenians. But support for the bill deteriorated later in the month when Turkey recalled its US ambassador and the Turkish government’s angry reaction fueled fears within Congress that it would cripple the ties between the two nations.
Turkey is a key US military and diplomatic ally in the Middle East region. Declining relations with a rare Muslim ally could deny American access to Incirlik airbase, or other supply lines vital to US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. Once this potential geopolitical impact became known, the White House also began to persuade the bill sponsors for postponement.
Eventually, the four main sponsors of the bill – Democrats Adam Schiff, Brad Sherman, Anna Eshoo and Frank Pallone – bowed to White House pressure. Still, the four believe the bill still has significant backing in Congress and their colleagues will vote for it when “timing is more favorable.” Democrats also argued that “by refusing to condemn the Armenian massacres as ‘genocide,’ the United States will encourage impunity for current and future crimes against humanity.”
Republican House minority leader John Boehner, in contrast, agreed with the decision to delay the vote. Although he acknowledged that “the suffering the Armenian people endured was tragic,” “this 90-year-old issue should be settled by historians, not by politicians.”
Many Western historians say the killing of at least 1.5 million Armenians from 1915 to 1917 by the Ottoman Empire was genocide. While Turkey accepts there were mass killings, they dispute the number of dead and the depiction of the killings as genocide. On Friday, Armenian officials said they were “surprised” that concerns on US-Turkey relations had been allowed to stall this non-binding, symbolic “verbal acknowledgement.”
For more information, please see:
News.com.au – US vote on Armenia ‘genocide’ delayed – 27 October 2007
Reuters – Armenia ‘surprised’ at storm over genocide – 26 Octboer 2007
BBC News – US delays Armenia ‘genocide’ vote – 26 October 2007
AFP – Backers of Armenia genocide bill agree to delay vote – 25 October 2007
