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Los Angeles Daily News, CA
Sept 16 2005
Armenian genocide labeled fact
By Lisa Friedman, Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON - In a victory for Southern California's sizable Armenian
communities, a House panel voted overwhelmingly Thursday to declare
the massacre of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire a genocide.
It was the first time in five years that the House International
Relations Committee took up the internationally controversial issue,
approving separate resolutions by Reps. Adam Schiff, D-Pasadena, and
George Radanovich, R-Fresno.
The resolutions still face several hurdles, including fierce
opposition from the State Department and House Speaker Dennis
Hastert. Diplomats and Hastert have argued that such a declaration
will rupture U.S.-Turkish relations.
But Armenians hailed the move, saying that, by voting 35-11 for
Schiff's bill and 40-7 for Radanovich's, the panel sent a strong
message that Congress should not equivocate on recognizing crimes
against humanity.
"If the United States does not step up and acknowledge this history
and show moral backbone and clarity on these sorts of issues, people
are going to be disappointed in us. We believe in this country
because it does the right thing," said Armen Carapetian, Glendale
spokesman for the Armenian National Committee of America.
The committee's votes came after more than three hours of tense
debate in which lawmakers invoked the Holocaust, slavery, Darfur and
American Indians.
Armenians estimate more than 1.5 million died and hundreds of
thousands of others were displaced in a planned genocide campaign
between 1915 and 1923.
They say the U.S. and Turkey are covering up a historical wrong and
sending an immoral message by not acknowledging it as a genocide.
Turkey maintains there was no plan for systematic extermination, that
only about 300,000 Armenians were killed, and that Armenians also
killed thousands of Turks in the tumultuous last years of the Ottoman
Empire.
Schiff, who represents many of Los Angeles County's estimated 400,000
Armenians, said approving the resolution "is a sacred obligation to
ensure our country honors the past; there is no dispute that what
happened to the Armenian people constitutes genocide."
Every Californian on the committee voted in favor of the resolutions.
Among those supporting the resolutions were Reps. Howard Berman,
D-Van Nuys; Brad Sherman, D-Sherman Oaks; Dianne Watson, D-Los
Angeles; Grace Napolitano, D-Santa
Fe Springs; Dana Rohrabacher, R-Huntington Beach; Darrell Issa,
R-Vista; and Elton Gallegly, R-Thousand Oaks.
San Francisco Democrat Rep. Tom Lantos and House International
Relations Committee Chairman Henry Hyde, R-Ill., stunned onlookers by
supporting the measure.
As did many other supporters of the resolutions, they praised
Turkey's long-standing alliance with the U.S., but said acknowledging
a historical wrong should not damage that relationship.
Rep. Dan Burton, D-Ind., who led the debate against the resolutions,
argued that historians disagree whether evidence of genocide exists
and said the fact that Armenians today live peaceably in Turkey is
"proof that the genocide standard cannot be met."
He argued that rather than alienate a key ally, Congress should allow
Turkey and Armenia to work out the conflict over their history on
their own.
Nursen Mazici, a Turkish visiting professor at Georgetown University
who came to watch the proceedings, said she was disappointed by the
vote and thinks most U.S. lawmakers don't know the full history of
the Ottoman Empire after World War I.
"Many Armenians were killed, but at the time many Turks were killed
by Armenian terrorists. I am so sorry for them, for both sides,"
Mazici said.
Tsoghig Margossian, 26, an Armenian-American who moved to the
Washington, D.C., area from Northridge three years ago, said her
relatives escaped death by fleeing what was then Anatolia.
She called Thursday's votes "an affirmative commitment by the U.S.
government to recognize the mistake it has made by denying the
genocide for so long."
Sept 16 2005
Armenian genocide labeled fact
By Lisa Friedman, Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON - In a victory for Southern California's sizable Armenian
communities, a House panel voted overwhelmingly Thursday to declare
the massacre of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire a genocide.
It was the first time in five years that the House International
Relations Committee took up the internationally controversial issue,
approving separate resolutions by Reps. Adam Schiff, D-Pasadena, and
George Radanovich, R-Fresno.
The resolutions still face several hurdles, including fierce
opposition from the State Department and House Speaker Dennis
Hastert. Diplomats and Hastert have argued that such a declaration
will rupture U.S.-Turkish relations.
But Armenians hailed the move, saying that, by voting 35-11 for
Schiff's bill and 40-7 for Radanovich's, the panel sent a strong
message that Congress should not equivocate on recognizing crimes
against humanity.
"If the United States does not step up and acknowledge this history
and show moral backbone and clarity on these sorts of issues, people
are going to be disappointed in us. We believe in this country
because it does the right thing," said Armen Carapetian, Glendale
spokesman for the Armenian National Committee of America.
The committee's votes came after more than three hours of tense
debate in which lawmakers invoked the Holocaust, slavery, Darfur and
American Indians.
Armenians estimate more than 1.5 million died and hundreds of
thousands of others were displaced in a planned genocide campaign
between 1915 and 1923.
They say the U.S. and Turkey are covering up a historical wrong and
sending an immoral message by not acknowledging it as a genocide.
Turkey maintains there was no plan for systematic extermination, that
only about 300,000 Armenians were killed, and that Armenians also
killed thousands of Turks in the tumultuous last years of the Ottoman
Empire.
Schiff, who represents many of Los Angeles County's estimated 400,000
Armenians, said approving the resolution "is a sacred obligation to
ensure our country honors the past; there is no dispute that what
happened to the Armenian people constitutes genocide."
Every Californian on the committee voted in favor of the resolutions.
Among those supporting the resolutions were Reps. Howard Berman,
D-Van Nuys; Brad Sherman, D-Sherman Oaks; Dianne Watson, D-Los
Angeles; Grace Napolitano, D-Santa
Fe Springs; Dana Rohrabacher, R-Huntington Beach; Darrell Issa,
R-Vista; and Elton Gallegly, R-Thousand Oaks.
San Francisco Democrat Rep. Tom Lantos and House International
Relations Committee Chairman Henry Hyde, R-Ill., stunned onlookers by
supporting the measure.
As did many other supporters of the resolutions, they praised
Turkey's long-standing alliance with the U.S., but said acknowledging
a historical wrong should not damage that relationship.
Rep. Dan Burton, D-Ind., who led the debate against the resolutions,
argued that historians disagree whether evidence of genocide exists
and said the fact that Armenians today live peaceably in Turkey is
"proof that the genocide standard cannot be met."
He argued that rather than alienate a key ally, Congress should allow
Turkey and Armenia to work out the conflict over their history on
their own.
Nursen Mazici, a Turkish visiting professor at Georgetown University
who came to watch the proceedings, said she was disappointed by the
vote and thinks most U.S. lawmakers don't know the full history of
the Ottoman Empire after World War I.
"Many Armenians were killed, but at the time many Turks were killed
by Armenian terrorists. I am so sorry for them, for both sides,"
Mazici said.
Tsoghig Margossian, 26, an Armenian-American who moved to the
Washington, D.C., area from Northridge three years ago, said her
relatives escaped death by fleeing what was then Anatolia.
She called Thursday's votes "an affirmative commitment by the U.S.
government to recognize the mistake it has made by denying the
genocide for so long."