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The Age, Australia
March 7 2010
Congress bows to Obama concerns on genocide vote
MARY BETH SHERIDAN, WASHINGTON
March 7, 2010 .
CONGRESSIONAL leaders have bowed to concerns from the Obama
administration and agreed not to have a full House of Representatives
vote on a resolution that labels as genocide the killing of Armenians
in Turkey during World War I.
The non-binding resolution, which narrowly passed the House Foreign
Affairs Committee a day earlier, prompted a furious reaction from NATO
ally Turkey, which recalled its ambassador from Washington.
Turkey is critical to US security interests because of its support for
war efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan. It also will have a key vote at
the UN if the Security Council considers sanctions against Iran.
Turkish officials said on Friday the resolution could also torpedo an
agreement aimed at normalising their country's relations with Armenia.
The accord was mediated by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
''We believe congressional leaders understand the severe impact any
further action would have on normalisation between Turkey and Armenia.
We believe that this will not come to the floor,'' an administration
official said.
The committee's resolution says the Ottoman Empire, the predecessor of
modern-day Turkey, killed 1.5 million ethnic Armenians from 1915 to
1923. It asks the president to ensure that US foreign policy reflects
''appropriate understanding'' of the atrocity and ''the consequences
of the failure to realise a just resolution''.
The issue is an awkward one for the administration because, in their
previous roles as senators, President Barack Obama, Vice-President Joe
Biden and Mrs Clinton had all called on president George Bush to
declare the mass killings a genocide.
The chairman of the Armenian National Committee of America, a lobby
group, had praised the committee for passing the resolution. ''You
cannot have a relationship or a reconciliation based upon lies,''
Kenneth Hachikian said. ''Turkey can't come to the table and say let's
reconcile but we deny what the rest of the world acknowledges.''
The resolution noted that England, France and Russia called the
killings a crime against humanity at the time, and that Turkey's own
government indicted the leaders of the massacres after World War I.
Turkey acknowledges that large numbers of Armenians were killed during
and immediately after the war. But its officials and some historians
say the deaths related to other factors at the end of the Ottoman
Empire and were not a campaign of genocide.
What happened in 1915?
- During the First World War, Armenians formed volunteer battalions to
help the Russian army against the Turks. Early in 1915, these
battalions organised the recruiting of Turkish Armenians. The Turkish
government reacted by ordering the deportation of the Armenian
population. About 1 million died from starvation or were killed along
the route. Many fled to Russian Armenia where, in 1918, an Armenian
republic was established.
- The 1948 UN convention on genocide defines genocide as ''any of the
following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part,
a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: killing
members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members
of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life
calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in
part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
[and] forcibly transferring children of the group to another group''.
- Armenians allege what happened was an act of genocide. Turkey
accepts that atrocities took place but argues that there was no
systematic attempt to destroy the Christian Armenians. It puts the
number of deaths at about 300,000 and says many innocent Muslim Turks
also died in the turmoil of war.
- Argentina, Belgium, Canada, France, Italy and Russia are among more
than 20 countries that have formally recognised genocide against the
Armenians.
http://www.theage.com.au/world/con gress-bows-to-obama-concerns-on-genocide-vote-2010 0306-pps5.html
March 7 2010
Congress bows to Obama concerns on genocide vote
MARY BETH SHERIDAN, WASHINGTON
March 7, 2010 .
CONGRESSIONAL leaders have bowed to concerns from the Obama
administration and agreed not to have a full House of Representatives
vote on a resolution that labels as genocide the killing of Armenians
in Turkey during World War I.
The non-binding resolution, which narrowly passed the House Foreign
Affairs Committee a day earlier, prompted a furious reaction from NATO
ally Turkey, which recalled its ambassador from Washington.
Turkey is critical to US security interests because of its support for
war efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan. It also will have a key vote at
the UN if the Security Council considers sanctions against Iran.
Turkish officials said on Friday the resolution could also torpedo an
agreement aimed at normalising their country's relations with Armenia.
The accord was mediated by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
''We believe congressional leaders understand the severe impact any
further action would have on normalisation between Turkey and Armenia.
We believe that this will not come to the floor,'' an administration
official said.
The committee's resolution says the Ottoman Empire, the predecessor of
modern-day Turkey, killed 1.5 million ethnic Armenians from 1915 to
1923. It asks the president to ensure that US foreign policy reflects
''appropriate understanding'' of the atrocity and ''the consequences
of the failure to realise a just resolution''.
The issue is an awkward one for the administration because, in their
previous roles as senators, President Barack Obama, Vice-President Joe
Biden and Mrs Clinton had all called on president George Bush to
declare the mass killings a genocide.
The chairman of the Armenian National Committee of America, a lobby
group, had praised the committee for passing the resolution. ''You
cannot have a relationship or a reconciliation based upon lies,''
Kenneth Hachikian said. ''Turkey can't come to the table and say let's
reconcile but we deny what the rest of the world acknowledges.''
The resolution noted that England, France and Russia called the
killings a crime against humanity at the time, and that Turkey's own
government indicted the leaders of the massacres after World War I.
Turkey acknowledges that large numbers of Armenians were killed during
and immediately after the war. But its officials and some historians
say the deaths related to other factors at the end of the Ottoman
Empire and were not a campaign of genocide.
What happened in 1915?
- During the First World War, Armenians formed volunteer battalions to
help the Russian army against the Turks. Early in 1915, these
battalions organised the recruiting of Turkish Armenians. The Turkish
government reacted by ordering the deportation of the Armenian
population. About 1 million died from starvation or were killed along
the route. Many fled to Russian Armenia where, in 1918, an Armenian
republic was established.
- The 1948 UN convention on genocide defines genocide as ''any of the
following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part,
a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: killing
members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members
of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life
calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in
part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
[and] forcibly transferring children of the group to another group''.
- Armenians allege what happened was an act of genocide. Turkey
accepts that atrocities took place but argues that there was no
systematic attempt to destroy the Christian Armenians. It puts the
number of deaths at about 300,000 and says many innocent Muslim Turks
also died in the turmoil of war.
- Argentina, Belgium, Canada, France, Italy and Russia are among more
than 20 countries that have formally recognised genocide against the
Armenians.
http://www.theage.com.au/world/con gress-bows-to-obama-concerns-on-genocide-vote-2010 0306-pps5.html