Looks like the Current:
Bush reels as Armenian genocide vote passed
Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
Wednesday October 10, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
Congress today rejected a plea by the White House over a resolution officially recognising as genocide the forced deportation and massacre of Armenians in the last days of the Ottoman empire.
President George Bush warned of the negative repercussions should Congress use the word genocide to describe the persecution that killed an estimated 1.5 million Armenians and forced many into exile.
"This resolution is not the right response to these historic mass killings, and its passage would do great harm to our relations with a key ally in Nato and in the global war on terror," Mr Bush said.
And Former POTUS Agree:
US backs down over Turkey 'genocide'
Friday, 20 October, 2000,
The American House of Representatives has agreed to a request from President Clinton to withdraw a draft resolution which labelled as genocide the killing of Armenians by Turks more than 80 years ago.
Every patriotic American should heed the president's request
Mr Clinton had said passing the resolution could put at risk American lives and further inflame tensions in the Middle East.
The draft had urged the president to show "appropriate understanding and sensitivity" toward events in the Ottoman Empire eight decades ago.
It described the "the systematic and deliberate annihilation of 1.5 million Armenians" as genocide.
According to resolution sponsors, another 500,000 Armenians were driven from their homes.
But Turkey has always said that events in the northeast of the country between 1915 and 1923 cannot be described as genocide.
It says both sides suffered during partisan fighting as the Ottoman Empire collapsed.
Fierce opposition
Such was the concern in the White House - not only about the diplomatic repercussions with Ankara, but the possible impact across the Middle East - that President Clinton personally intervened.
Genocide survivors
Survivors commemorate the 85th anniversary in New York this year
He telephoned the Republican House speaker, Dennis Hastert, who agreed to cancel the vote.
The Turkish Government, a key Nato military ally of the United States, has been fiercely opposed to the resolution, threatening retaliation if it was passed.
Washington was warned that US military aircraft using Turkey's Incirlik air base to patrol the no-fly zone in northern Iraq would be grounded.
There were also fears that Turkey might withdraw from a possible $4.5bn defence deal with an American contractor.
The BBC's Nick Bryant in Washington says Republican leaders in Congress had been under fierce pressure from members, whose home districts harbour large Armenian constituencies.
House speaker Hastert said that although he personally supported the resolution, he believed that the president's request should be heeded.
"The Congress, while it has a right to express its opinions on critical issues of the day, also must be cognizant of the consequences of the expression of those opinions," he said.
OTB
The French National Assembly recognised the genocide on 29 May, although the French Government did not endorse the move.
Turkey warned of dire consequences, but the issue blew over.
