San Jose Mercury News - 09.15.2005

San Jose Mercury News

Panel passes resolutions calling Armenian killings 'genocide'

WASHINGTON (AP) - Over the strong objections of President George W. Bush's administration, a congressional panel Thursday endorsed two resolutions denouncing the deaths of Armenians early last century as genocide - a sensitive issue in relations with Turkey.

The House of Representatives' International Relations Committee voted 35-11 to approve a resolution calling on Turkey to acknowledge the culpability of its predecessor state, the Ottoman empire in the 1915-1923 killings.

A second resolution passed 40-7, calling for U.S. foreign policy to reflect an understanding of the Armenian genocide and for the president to recognize the deaths as genocide.

It is not clear if or when the resolutions will be brought before the full House of Representatives.

Armenians say that Ottoman Turks caused the deaths of 1.5 million in a planned genocide. Turkey said the toll is wildly inflated and Armenians were killed or displaced in civil unrest during the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. The Turks also fear that Armenia will use the genocide claims to make territorial demands against Turkey.

The State Department sent a letter to committee members saying the debate "could damage U.S.-Turkish relations and could undermine progress by Ankara and Yerevan as they begin quiet talks to address the issue and look to the future."

Turkey is an important strategic U.S. ally. It is a democratic, secular Muslim state bordering on Iraq and a NATO member. The relationship, though, has been strained since Ankara refused to allow U.S. troops in the country for the Iraq war.

The State Department said the "resolutions could undermine efforts to rebuild a partnership between the United States and Turkey in pursuit of America's broad national security interests in the eastern Mediterranean, Caucasus, Central Asia and the Middle East."

The sponsor of the first resolution, Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff, said he was sensitive to Turkey's importance and that he considers it an ally of the United States.

But "that alliance cannot be used as a tool to escape from the past no matter how uncomfortable that past is," said Schiff, whose California district includes tens of thousands of Armenians.

Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Calif., the panel's top Democrat, said he was reversing his own position in supporting the resolution. He said though Turkey was a good friend, it needed to show more solidarity with the United States on important matters, noting the issue of U.S. troops, among others.

The committee's Republican Chairman, Rep. Henry Hyde, said he doubted the relationship with Turkey would be harmed and stressed the resolutions do not hold Turkey or the Turkish people accountable for the killings. He said the resolutions "merely recognize the fact that the authorities of the Ottoman Empire deliberately slaughtered the majority of the Armenian community in their empire."

"Denial of that fact cannot be justified on the basis of expediency or fear that speaking the truth will do us harm," he said.