United States recognition of the Armenian Genocide

The Resolution Affirming the United States Record on the Armenian Genocide (H.Res. 296) and the Resolution Expressing the Sense of the Senate that it is the Policy of the United States to Commemorate the Armenian Genocide Through Official Recognition and Remembrance (S.Res. 150) are landmark Congressional resolutions that formally affirm recognition and define American policy on the Armenian Genocide, the systematic mass extermination of 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Turks from 1915-1923. The U.S. House of Representatives passed H. Res 296 on October 29, 2019 by a vote of 405-11, affirming that it is the official policy of the United States to commemorate and recognize the Armenian Genocide, reject association of the US Government with all forms of its denial, and to promote public education of the Armenian Genocide.[1] S. Res 150 is a similar landmark resolution that the U.S. Senate passed on December 12, 2019 by unanimous consent.[2] With the passing of these two resolutions, the United States officially recognizes the Armenian Genocide after decades of recognition efforts by Armenian-American groups and the IAGS, and fierce opposition by denialist and historical revisionist forces representing Turkey on the world-stage. It is important to note that this is not the first time the US has recognized the genocide, such recognitions have been made in 1951, 1984, and by President Ronald Reagan in a 1981 speech addressing crimes against humanity. Due to Turkey's fierce opposition and warnings that passing such a resolution would damage US-Turkish relations, the US had for decades opted to not antagonize an ally in the Middle East by avoiding using the term "Genocide" to describe the extermination of the Armenian people.

Many previous attempts were made in previous decades to define official US policy on the genocide. A notable attempt at a similar measure was H. Res 106.[3] The resolution was introduced by Adam Schiff on January 30, 2007, during the 110th United States Congress. The resolution passed the House Foreign Relation Committee by a 27-21 vote, but did not reach the house floor.[4]

Background

2007 resolution

Affirmation of the United States Record on the Armenian Genocide Resolution calls upon the President to ensure that U.S. foreign policy reflects appropriate understanding and sensitivity concerning issues related to human rights, ethnic cleansing, and genocide documented in the U.S. record relating to the Armenian Genocide and the consequences of the failure to realize a just resolution and in the President's annual message commemorating the Armenian Genocide to characterize the systematic and deliberate annihilation of 1.5 million Armenians as genocide, and to recall the proud history of U.S. intervention in opposition to the Armenian Genocide.[5]

Upon its introduction it was referred to United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs[6] where it passed a 27-21 vote and was sent back for a full house vote. On October 26, 2007, in a letter addressed to the House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, four key sponsors of the bill requested a debate on the bill in full House to be postponed.[7] The resolution was not brought to the house floor due to lobbying by Turkey.[4] On October 29, 2019, the full House of Representatives finally passed the resolution by a vote of 405-11.

Introduction of resolution

On October 11, 2007, regarding a proposed U.S. House resolution 106, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi said that the measure would be brought to a vote because "While that may have been a long time ago, genocide is taking place now in Darfur, it did within recent memory in Rwanda, so as long as there is genocide there is need to speak out against it ..."[8] However, later she was forced to backtrack from a pledge to bring the measure for a vote because of a waning support for this resolution, since many believe that "angering Turkey would hamper efforts in Iraq".[9] A 2015 version of the resolution had 212 co-sponsors, compared to 236 co-sponsors, which it had in early 2007.[10]

Co-sponsors

As of now, including Rep. Schiff, the resolution has 215 co-sponsors.[11]

At least 11 representatives have withdrawn as cosponsors since October 15, 2007, and the number of cosponsors fell short of a majority of the House.[12][13]

Opposition

The bill has been opposed by the Republic of Turkey, as well as the administration of former U.S. President George W. Bush. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged U.S. lawmakers to drop the resolution. She said: "I continue to believe that the passage of the ... Armenian genocide resolution would severely harm our relationships with Turkey".[14] While a candidate, U.S. President Barack Obama stated that he "stood with the Armenian American community in calling for Turkey's acknowledgment of the Armenian Genocide",[15] but his Secretary of State Hillary Clinton assured Turkey that the White House opposes the resolution.[16]

Eight former U.S. secretaries of state, both Republican and Democrat, signed a petition calling for refraining from passing this resolution.[17]

Gregory Meeks, a Democratic representative from New York in the United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs, voted against the resolution, arguing that Congress should focus on the failings of U.S. history, such as slavery or the killings of Native Americans, before it starts condemning the histories of other countries. He said, "We have failed to do what we're asking other people to do ... We have got to clean up our own house."[18]

Zbigniew Brzezinski, a former U.S. national security adviser, stated in an interview to CNN:

As far as a resolution is concerned, I never realized that the House of Representatives was some sort of an academy of learning that passes judgment on historical events. History's full of terrible crimes, and there is no doubt that many Armenians were massacred in World War I. But whether the House of Representatives should be passing resolutions whether that should be classified as genocide or a huge massacre is I don't think any of its business. It has nothing to do with passing laws, how to run the United States. That's where the constitution created the House of Representatives for.[19]

Columnist Charles Krauthammer expressed a similar view, stating "unequivocally" that the Armenian genocide happened, but "unequivocally" that "the U.S. House of Representatives [should not] be expressing itself on this now".[20] Krauthammer also reports that "Even Mesrob Mutafyan, patriarch of the Armenian community in Turkey, has stated that his community is opposed to the resolution, calling it the result of domestic American politics."[20]

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter also stated in an interview to CNN: "I think if I was in Congress I would not vote for it."[21]

The resolution also received negative reactions in mass media. Richmond Times-Dispatch columnist expressed his surprise that "a Congress that has historically lacked the spine or heart to tackle the nation's ugliest legacies in a meaningful way is censuring Turkey". The newspaper quotes Robert J. Miller, a professor at Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland, Ore., who called it "unbelievable" that Congress is pointing fingers elsewhere while ignoring a U.S. history of black enslavement and the destruction and displacement of Indians.[22]

Turkish politician Gündüz Suphi Aktan realized that even the opponents of the resolution recognized the fact of the genocide, which he found "unbearable".[23]

Republic of Turkey

Turkish ambassador Nabi Şensoy stated: "[genocide] is the greatest accusation of all against humanity ... You cannot expect any nation to accept that kind of labeling."

According to the Washington Post, to defeat the initiative for the resolution, the Turkish government "is spending more than $300,000 a month on communications specialists and high-powered lobbyists, including former congressman Bob Livingston".[24]

On October 11, 2007, Gunduz Aktan, a member of the delegation of Turkish parliamentarians, who were in Washington to protest against the resolution, stated:

What was bothering me yesterday was that those (U.S. representatives) who were supporting the Turkish case, 21 of them, they said loud and clear that the events of 1915 amounted to genocide. Despite this fact, because of the strategic importance of Turkey, because of the national interest of the US, they are voting no. This was unbearable.[25]

Armenian diaspora

According to Newsweek:

The measure passed despite a lobbying blitz from the Turkish government, which hired an army of K Street lobbyists to fight it. The team included former House majority leader Dick Gephardt, who as a congressman had cosponsored genocide resolutions but switched sides in March when his firm signed a $1.2 million-a-year contract to represent the Turks. The Armenian push was also boosted by campaign contributions: Annie Totah, co-chair of the Armenian American Political Action Committee, told NEWSWEEK she has raised "hundreds of thousands of dollars" for Democratic candidates and recently joined Hillary Clinton's finance committee. (Clinton is a cosponsor of the resolution in the Senate.)[26]

Comments from Russia

"The Armenian Genocide resolution is a proper test for American democracy. It will uncover priorities of the United States – good relations with Turkey or historical truth", Russian State Duma member, Konstantin Zatulin told a news conference in Yerevan on 21 October 2007.[27]

2019 resolution

Reactions

The Turkish right-wing Good Party spokesperson Yavuz Ağıralioğlu said, "We will retaliate against it with our decision to name our children Enver, Cemal and Talat"—referring to the Three Pashas who were the main perpetrators of the genocide.[28][29]

See also

References

  1. https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-resolution/296
  2. https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senate-resolution/150
  3. (H.Res. 106)
  4. Hulse, Carl (2007-10-26). "U.S. and Turkey Thwart Armenian Genocide Bill". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2018-01-17.
  5. Thomas.gov
  6. http://foreignaffairs.house.gov/press_display.asp?id=430 Opening Statement by Chairman Lantos at markup of H. Res. 106
  7. Agence France Presse. "Backers of Armenia genocide bill bow to White House pressure", October 26, 2007
  8. "US House Speaker: Armenian Genocide Measure Will Go Forward". Archived from the original on 2007-10-12. Retrieved 2007-10-11.
  9. The Wall Street Journal. How Turkey Could Undermine Iraq.
  10. "H.Res.106 - Affirmation of the United States Record on the Armenian Genocide Resolution". Retrieved 2015-03-10.
  11. Los Angeles Times. Who changed their minds, and when
  12. Los Angeles Times. Genocide resolution's support was fading
  13. Hulse, Carl (October 17, 2007). "Support Wanes in House for Genocide Vote". The New York Times. Washington. Archived from the original on 2018-02-22. Retrieved March 29, 2019.
  14. Forbes.com. Rice urges US Congress to drop Armenia 'genocide' Bill
  15. "Barack Obama on the Importance of US-Armenia Relations". BarackObama.com. 2008-01-19. Archived from the original on 2009-02-20. Retrieved 2009-06-02.
  16. http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2010/03/29/104363.html
  17. Times Online. Stirring up the past, jeopardising the future
  18. House panel OKs Armenian genocide resolution
  19. CNN late edition with Wolf Blitzer, aired October 14, 2007 - 11:00 ET
  20. "Charles Krauthammer - Pelosi's Armenian Gambit". washingtonpost.com. October 19, 2007. Retrieved 2009-06-02.
  21. Brian Knowlton. "U.S. House speaker vows debate on Armenian genocide resolution", International Herald Tribune, Sunday, October 14, 2007
  22. Richmond Times-Dispatch. Apologies needed for U.S. wrongs. Monday, Oct 22, 2007.
  23. Mamigonian, Marc A. (2015). "Academic Denial of the Armenian Genocide in American Scholarship: Denialism as Manufactured Controversy". Genocide Studies International. 9 (1): 61–82. doi:10.3138/gsi.9.1.04. In 2007, after the House Foreign Relations Committee voted on another resolution, the late Turkish commentator, diplomat, and member of parliament Gündüz Aktan understood that even those “supporting the Turkish case . . . said loud and clear that the events of 1915 amounted to genocide,” and only “because of the strategic importance of Turkey, because of the national interest of the US, they are voting no.” For Aktan, this realization was “unbearable.”
  24. White House And Turkey Fight Bill On Armenia: Genocide Label for WWI-Era Killings Has House Support, By Glenn Kessler, Washington Post, October 10, 2007
  25. TURKISH MPS: BUSH ADMINISTRATION MUST MAKE GOODWILL GESTURE TO COMPENSATE FOR US HOUSE COMMITTEE VOTE, by Joshua Kucera, EurasiaNet, 10/11/07
  26. Newsweek. A Fight Over an Ugly Past.
  27. Константин Затулин: Планы Турции по вторжению в Ирак - "циничный, но грамотный блеф" (in Russian)
  28. "Name children after Ottoman leaders to hit back at U.S., Turkish politician says". Ahval. Retrieved 10 December 2020.
  29. Anka News Agency [@ankahabera] (30 October 2019). "- Bu münasebetsizlik devam ederse tüm cihan bilsin ki kız çocuklarımız da dahil herkese Talat ismini veririz" [If this inappropriateness continues, everybody should know that we will name everyone, including our daughters, after Talat] (Tweet) (in Turkish) via Twitter.
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