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.”
Yorumlar kapatıldı.