"Genocide resolution draws ire; Turkey rebukes House panel for OK’ing measure" by Farah Stockman, Globe Staff | March 5, 2010
WASHINGTON - The House Foreign Affairs Committee narrowly passed a nonbinding resolution yesterday that condemns the World War I-era killings of Armenians as genocide, despite warnings by the Obama administration that such a move would anger Turkey, a key US ally in the Middle East, and would put fragile reconciliation efforts between Turkey and Armenia at risk....
So?
Since when are mass-murderers sensitivities taken into consideration, huh?
Turkey, which insists that the deaths were from war and unrest, issued a scathing rebuke after the vote.
“We condemn this draft resolution, accusing the Turkish nation with a crime that it has not committed,’’ the Turkish government’s statement read.
Armenians in the United States have been lobbying for decades to get the killings recognized as genocide. The resolution has been championed by congressmen from California, home to the largest Armenian population in the United States. All five members of the panel from California supported the measure....
Of course, I feel unqualified to criticize, seeing as my nation exterminated the natives, traveled across the Pacific to slaughter Filipinos, dropped atomic bombs on Japan, killed millions of Vietnamese and other South Asians, and are currently killing Muslims in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.
Why is the House wasting time on this, and when is the resolution condemning Israel for its treatment of Palestinians getting the vote?
But geopolitical forces have always prevented such a resolution from passing on the House floor.
Try the SPEAKER'S OFFICE, not geopolitics, 'kay?!!!
In 2007, after a House panel passed a similar resolution, the Bush administration persuaded House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, not to bring it to the House floor for a vote, because of the US need for Turkey’s cooperation in Iraq and elsewhere. It is not known whether this resolution will reach a floor vote.
I bet it DOES NOT, not with Obama taking up the Bush position.
This time, congressmen had yet another reason to vote against the resolution: Last year, Turkey and Armenia signed an unprecedented protocol aimed at normalizing relations. But the agreement has yet to pass the Parliament in either country.
Yesterday, Representative William D. Delahunt, a Quincy Democrat on the committee, said the resolution could ruin chances for a diplomatic breakthrough, so he voted against it.
But Peter Koutoujian, an Armenian-American state representative from Waltham whose grandparents fled the killings, hailed the vote, calling the genocide “a historical truth.’’
“I respect Congressman Delahunt, but I disagree completely with the reasoning,’’ Koutoujian said. “Each year this resolution comes up, there is a claim that the timing is bad. If not now, when?’’
Good point.
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Of course, not as good as the one on top of the leadership's heads:
"Genocide resolution may not get House vote" by Washington Post | March 6, 2010
WASHINGTON - The Obama administration has reached agreement with congressional leaders not to schedule a House vote on a resolution labeling the World War I-era massacre of Armenians as genocide, a US official said yesterday.
WTF? Guy wants a vote on health care so why can't they vote on this?
The nonbinding 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.
Then WHAT is all the FUSS?
THIS is what Congress is working on?
Why are we paying them, Americans?
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 United Nations if the Security Council considers sanctions against Iran.
So now genocide IS subject to all sorts of political calculations, huh?
Only ONE TIME where it is NOT, notice that?
Turkish officials said yesterday that the resolution could also torpedo an agreement aimed at normalizing their country’s relations with Armenia; the accord was mediated by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. Neither side has ratified the agreement as yet.
“We believe congressional leaders understand the severe impact any further action would have on normalization between Turkey and Armenia,’’ a senior administration official said yesterday.
Actually, it IS THEIR BUSINESS, not ours!
AmeriKa has NO STANDING to CRITICIZE ANYONE!
The issue is an awkward one for the administration because, in their old roles as senators, President Obama, Vice President Biden, and Clinton had called on President George W. Bush to declare the killings a genocide.
No, the BROKEN PROMISES and REVERSALS have been SO MANY that I doubt they feel awkward anymore. They just do it.
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