Ümit Enginsoy – Hurriyet Daily News
The largest and most influential U.S. Armenian group has launched a grassroots campaign to urge the House of Representatives to pass an “Armenian genocide” resolution before the term of the current Congress expires.
Though Armenian groups have lobbied for such a resolution many times before, typically ahead of April 24, the date when some countries commemorate the alleged genocide, the Armenian National Committee of America, or ANCA, is now hoping to push one through before the end of the year, when one of its congressional champions will lose her leadership post.
“There’s just a slight chance to pass the bill now, but the Armenians are trying their chances,” one Washington-based analyst told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review. “This looks more like a year-end fundraising effort.”
ANCA’s move came shortly after some Armenian-American celebrities launched similar campaigns to urge the current House speaker, the Democrat Nancy Pelosi, to bring the bill recognizing Armenian claims of genocide to a House floor vote before stepping down.
When the new Congress takes office Jan. 3, Pelosi, a strong supporter of the Armenian cause, will have to cede her post to the present Republican minority leader, John Boehner. The Republicans regained control of the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of Congress, with a major victory in congressional midterm elections held Nov. 2.
ANCA said in a statement late Tuesday that the U.S. Armenian community is “united in a common commitment to U.S. recognition of the Armenian genocide, an end to Turkey’s denials and a truthful and just resolution of this still-unpunished crime against the Armenian nation.”
Armenia claims up to 1.5 million Armenians were systematically killed in 1915 under the rule of the Ottoman Empire. Turkey denies this, saying that deaths were the result of civil strife that erupted when Armenians took up arms for independence in eastern Anatolia.
“Tens of thousands of Armenian Americans have joined genocide-prevention advocates in making the case for the adoption of this human-rights measure,” ANCA said in its statement, calling on its supporters to send messages to Pelosi and individual House members urging approval of the resolution. “The Armenian-American response has been unprecedented in size, scope and depth, bringing together young and old, from first-generation families to fifth-generation descendents of the first Armenian immigrants.”
ANCA also praised Armenian-American celebrities for their efforts to generate support for the resolution. TV celebrity Kim Kardashian last week sent a message to millions of her fans on the social-networking website Twitter, asking Pelosi to schedule a vote on the bill. Rock musician Serj Tankian made a similar move.
“We applaud Kim Kardashian, Serj Tankian and anti-genocide activists from across the country for calling on Speaker Pelosi to schedule a vote on the Armenian genocide resolution,” said Aram Hamparian, ANCA’s executive director.
Turkey has repeatedly warned that its bilateral relationship with the United States would deteriorate in a major and lasting way if the U.S. administration or Congress adopts a measure recognizing the Armenian genocide claims. The House Foreign Affairs Committee narrowly passed the current measure in March, and the House leadership took the bill to its agenda in September.
Despite unseating Pelosi from her leadership post, the Republican takeover of the House will not necessarily bring relief to Turkey, many analysts have warned. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a staunch supporter of Israel, is expected to become the new chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee after the new Congress opens. She and other pro-Israeli lawmakers may seek measures against Turkey in response to Ankara’s deteriorating ties with Tel Aviv, the analysts say.
The new Congress elected Nov. 2 will take office Jan. 3. Any congressional sessions held between Nov. 2 and the new year are called “lame duck” sessions. Under contemporary conditions, any meeting of Congress that occurs between a congressional election in November and the following Jan. 3 is a lame duck session. The significant characteristic of such a duck session is that its participants are the sitting members of the existing Congress, not those who will be entitled to sit in the new Congress.
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