Congressional initiative to deem killings of Armenians as genocide stalls in house.

• Author: Crook, John R.

An effort led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi to have the U.S. House of Representatives adopt a nonbinding resolution declaring the mass killings of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire in 1915 to have been genocide lost support and now appears unlikely of passage. The resolution prompted strong opposition by the U.S. administration and the government of Turkey. The proposed "Affirmation of the United States Record on the Armenian Genocide Resolution" includes thirty paragraphs of congressional findings. Its operative part then provides:

The House of Representatives--

(1) calls upon the President to ensure that the foreign policy of the United States reflects appropriate understanding and sensitivity concerning issues related to human rights, ethnic cleansing, and genocide documented in the United States record relating to the Armenian Genocide and the consequences of the failure to realize a just resolution; and

(2) calls upon the President in the President's annual message commemorating the Armenian Genocide issued on or about April 24, to accurately characterize the systematic and deliberate annihilation of 1,500,000 Armenians as genocide and to recall the proud history of United States intervention in opposition to the Armenian Genocide. (1)

The resolution initially passed the House Foreign Affairs Committee in October 2007 by a vote of 27 to 21. Following that vote, the Department of State issued a statement explaining the administration's opposition:

We regret that the House Foreign Affairs Committee has approved House Resolution 106 ... The Administration continues strongly to oppose this resolution, passage of which may do grave harm to U.S.-Turkish relations and to U.S. interests in Europe and the Middle East. Nor will it improve Turkish-Armenian relations or advance reconciliation among Turks and Armenians over the...