U.S. Congress gets prepared to vote a resolution that recognizes 1915 incidents as a “genocide.” US President Barack Obama who had stated that he believes so called Armenian genocide allegations during his election campaign, keeps silent on the issue.
Previous American administrations had prevented passage of similar resolutions from the U.S. Congress to avoid harming national interests of United States. On the other hand, President Obama has not make any calls to the U.S. House of Representatives against the resolution.
Ankara has several times iterated that recognition of Armenian allegations on 1915 incidents will damage bilateral relations. Turkey had called her ambassador to Washington when U.S. passed a similar resolution from the Foreign Affairs Committee of U.S. House and Bush administration had concerns about closure of Incirlik airbase which has strategical importance for the American troops in Iraq. Afterwards Bush administration prevented the resolution to be brought on the agenda of General Assembly.
Foreign Affairs Committe of the House will discuss the resolution on Thursday. The resolution will be able to be brought to the General Assembly if it passes from the committee. Speaker of the U.S. House Nancy Pelocy stated that she will make the decision related to bringing the resolution on the agenda of General Assembly due to the result of the voting in the committee.
During his speech on the last April 24, President Barack Obama did not use the term “genocide” for describing the incidents in 1915 to avoid endangering ongoing rapprochement process between Turkey and Armenia. Experts state that lack of progress in the process of normalization of relations between Turkey and Armenia makes it difficult for President Obama to stand against so called Armenian genocide resolution.
