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Schiff genocide resolution faces GOP resistance

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  • Schiff genocide resolution faces GOP resistance

    Glendale News Press
    LATimes.com
    July 17 2004

    Schiff genocide resolution faces GOP resistance
    House leaders fear offending ally Turkey one day after House passes
    bill affirming Armenian Genocide.


    By Josh Kleinbaum, News-Press


    WASHINGTON - A day after getting the House of Representatives to
    recognize the Armenian Genocide for the first time, Rep. Adam Schiff
    (D-Glendale) was already feeling pressure Friday from the House's
    Republican leadership to drop the issue.

    The House of Representatives accepted an amendment to the foreign
    operations appropriation bill Thursday sponsored by Schiff that would
    prohibit Turkey from using U.S. foreign aid funds to lobby against
    recognition of the genocide.

    "It puts the House on record as saying that the genocide took place,
    we know it took place, and we won't allow our money to be used to
    deny it," Schiff said.

    >From 1915 to 1923, 1.5 million Armenians were killed by the Ottoman
    Turks, but the United States has never acknowledged it as genocide.
    Schiff's amendment is the first time the House voted on a measure
    related to the genocide.

    But a joint House-Senate committee must approve the amendment, and
    Republican leaders in the House are already starting to fight it. In
    a joint statement, Speaker of the House J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.),
    House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) and House Majority Whip Roy
    Blunt (R-Mo.) insisted the committee drop the amendment and said the
    House would not consider officially recognizing the Armenian Genocide
    this year.

    Republicans fear that recognizing the genocide will hurt the United
    States' relationship with Turkey, a strategic military ally. The
    United States and Turkey jointly operate an air force base in
    Incirlik, on Turkey's Mediterranean coast.

    "Turkey has been a reliable ally of the United States for decades,
    and the deep foundation upon which our mutual economic and security
    relationship rests should not be disrupted by this amendment,"
    Hastert, DeLay and Blunt said in a written statement. Efforts to
    reach them Friday were unsuccessful.

    Schiff dismissed the notion, saying that Turkish leaders might be
    angered for a month and then get over it.

    He pledged to work hard to make sure the amendment remains part of
    the bill, and he expects help from Armenian-American leaders
    throughout the country.

    "Up until now, [the Republicans] have been killing this resolution
    behind the scenes; killing it with silence," Schiff said. "This is
    the first time they've been fleshed out and forced into the open."

    In Glendale, the Armenian-American community rejoiced that Schiff's
    amendment passed.

    Ardashes Kassakhian, executive director of the Armenian National
    Committee's Western Region, which serves Glendale and Burbank, heard
    the news while serving as a counselor at an Armenian youth camp. He
    immediately shared it with the campers.

    "I told them, boys and girls, we've been working hard for a very long
    time to have a success such as this," Kassakhian said. "It's been a
    while since we've had a success such as this one, and we achieved it.
    The kids all started cheering and singing Armenian patriotic songs."
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