House Panel: Armenia Deaths Were Genocide

(CBS/AP)  A congressional panel approved a resolution Thursday declaring the Ottoman-era killing of Armenians genocide over protests by Turkey, a NATO ally that is crucial to U.S. interests in the Middle East and Afghanistan.

Minutes after the vote, Turkey said it was recalling its ambassador from Washington.

The House Foreign Affairs Committee endorsed the resolution with a 23-22 vote Thursday, even though the Obama administration had urged Congress not to offend Turkey by approving it.

The resolution now goes to the full House, where prospects for passage are uncertain.

Turkey, a NATO ally with a pivotal role for U.S. interests in the Middle East and Afghanistan, has warned that the resolution's approval could jeopardize U.S-Turkish cooperation and set back negotiations aimed at opening the border between Turkey and Armenia.

60 Minutes: Turkey and Armenia's Battle over History

Armenian American groups have for decades sought congressional affirmation of the killings as genocide.

Hours before the vote, White House spokesman Mike Hammer said in a statement that Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton had spoken with the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Democratic Rep. Howard Berman, and indicated that "further Congressional action could impede progress on normalization of relations" between Turkey and Armenia.

Hammer would not elaborate on the details of the conversation.

Still, Berman on Thursday urged fellow members of the committee to pass the resolution.

"The Turks say passing this resolution could have terrible consequences for our bilateral relationship, and indeed perhaps there will be some consequences," Berman said. "But I believe that Turkey values its relations with the United States at least as much as we value our relations with Turkey."

Even if the measure doesn't go beyond the committee, Turkey has warned it could jeopardize U.S-Turkish cooperation and set back negotiations aimed at opening the border between Turkey and Armenia.

Hammer said Obama called Turkey's president, Abdullah Gul, on Wednesday to express his appreciation for Turkey's efforts to normalize relations with Armenia. Obama urged Turkey to rapidly ratify a deal reached in October with Armenia that would open the border between the two countries.

The deal must be approved by the Turkish parliament, and Turkish lawmakers have warned that the committee's vote could stall progress.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs suggested the administration was trying to buy time for Turkey's parliament to act.

"Our focus is on continuing to make progress on an issue that has, for almost 100 years, divided two countries," Gibbs said. "Through some very tough diplomatic work by Secretary Clinton, we've made progress. We're on the cusp of normalization."

The Foreign Affairs Committee approved a similar genocide measure in 2007, but it was not brought to the House floor for a vote following intensive pressure by then-President George W. Bush.

Following the 2007 committee vote, Turkey promptly recalled its ambassador, and U.S. officials feared the Turks might cut off American access to a Turkish air base essential to operations in Iraq.

On Thursday, a Turkish official suggested his country could again recall its ambassador to the United States if the congressional panel approves the resolution.

"All options are on the table," the government official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said she will wait to see the result of the committee vote before deciding whether to bring it up for a vote.

The United States still wants Turkey's support for its operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. It also is pressing Turkey, which holds a rotating seat on the U.N. Security Council, to support sanctions against Iran, Turkey's neighbor.

Armenian American groups have for decades sought congressional affirmation of the killings as genocide. Historians estimate that up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed by Ottoman Turks around the time of World War I, an event widely viewed by scholars as the first genocide of the 20th century. Turkey denies that the deaths constituted genocide, saying the toll has been inflated and those killed were victims of civil war and unrest.

In April, Obama failed to brand the killings genocide in an annual White House statement on the day marking Armenian remembrance. Obama said that while he had not changed his personal views, he did not want to upset promising talks between Turkey and Armenia on improving relations and opening their border. Turkey sealed the border in 1993 to protest Armenia's war with neighboring Azerbaijan.

The White House reiterated that Obama's views of the killings had not changed.

[mjlewis6]

The US did its own ETHNIC CLEANSING in the Trail of Tears, the mass removal of Indians from the Southeastern States of the US per President Andrew Jackson. DESPITE THE PASSAGE OF TIME....it is still a crime and one for which the US refuses to amend.

Calling the Armenian roundup and genocide crime for what it was during the 1st World War by the Ottoman Empire...is no STAIN on Turkey. It is historical fact...like our Wounded Knee Massacre by the military in the 1880s. Turkey faces no threat from its neighbors so to the extent that it is a member of NATO is no reason for alarm since it is the ONLY Muslim nation to be a member. Truth and Fact are not to be DENIED for political expediency. Bush and Cheney in their administration committed numerous war crimes....and while there is no timely prosecution...a future generation, perhaps much STRONGER than the present OBAMA Administration, may reveal and change the offical version of events that lead up to the Invasion of Iraq and condemn the recurrent war-mongering propaganda that is presently extended as official policy and the 'best we could do' theory of government.

We are all sufficiently educated and informed at the present state of affairs and can disceren fact from fictions postulated to us so that we SHOULD REFORM our Constitution and remove the Electoral College Provisions. Those exist in our founding document and were instituted for controlling and thwarting the popular vote in this country. Let the US become a true democracy and have no further BUSH v GORE political trials on the basis of votes that wind up in the electoral college for the Supreme Court to endow and select our President.

[DSR_57]

So, what is this to the US ?? Why do we even care ?

[kbbpll]

Military bases. Airspace.

[PVperson2]

At a time that America is asking favors of Turkey, the republicans spit in their faces, how very very con-hypocritical of them, is the goal to set back America's efforts in that area? I guess that goes with the republican wish for America to fail that they have shown for over a year.

[Jim1900]

I don't think at least one commentator got the point. After the Turks cut off our supply routes to Iraq, we will have to draw down the forces more quickly. But at least the solution to one right-wing screwball scheme lies in another.

[ll2owt]

would anyone care to guess just how dumb george bush really is??

[jgg000101]

actually, obama is making bush look like a rocket scientist.

[jxknowles]

It either happened or it did. My feeling is it did. Still, I'm not sure why our Congress needs to pass a resolution stating so. What changes after that?

[PVperson2]

Your right westernworld, if we allow the Fascist republicans to have their way, we will be under their thumb and forced to live as you describe, """RISE UP AMERICA""", fight the Fascist, vote Democrat to save America from the insane minority that challenges freedom!!!!!

[Jim1900]

I have no idea why the U.S. Congress feels the need to express its view on a matter of Turkish/Armenian history. I don't recall that function being mentioned in the Constitution at all. But at least it answers the question of how quickly to bring the troops home from Iraq: very soon.

[justagame998]

That is my point exactly! Why is this an issue for the U.S. Congress? Who the hell cares, you know? Many of the committee members that have voted today probably have no clue on what the hell they voted on. This is going to do more damage for U.S. foreign relations than benefiting. From what I've heard Armenian government is not even involved with this resolution and it is all put together by the lobbying group in California where majority of the Armenian population lives in the U.S. I hope someone will put a resolution in place to not waste taxpayers money on such useless hearings. This is how America goes broke; you had 46 committee members wasting 5 hours of their time voting on something that benefits no one.

[humungo]

Turkey is,potentially,as reliable friend as Pakistan.The stabilizing influence of the Turkish military has been waning for some time.And the Islamin fundamentalists are waiting in the wings to make the country a theocratic state like Pakistan.

[maistir]

We should all hope that the Turkish ambassador enjoys the charming atmosphere and March weather back in Ankara.

The Turks have never hidden their desire to "cleanse" their population of its Armenian, Greek, Kurdish, Syrian or Russian elements. They only become upset when their Turkification policies are pointed out to them. What other nation arrests novelists for insulting the national identity?

[racheleadam]

It baffles and greatly disappoints me that an active willingness to ignore history exists, justified by the excuses seen throughout this comment section.

The Armenian Genocide was a terrible, tragedy that my ancestors miraculously managed to escape from - after being forced to watch their families slaughtered and marched into the desert, to death.

There is no excuse for this denial, and it's time that Turkey recognized it's crimes against humanity.

"Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it." - George Santayana

[Aviena]

Respective CBS,i thank for 60 minutes video.As comment on ansver to the turkish opponents.I wont to present you information about the best armenian composer Komitas,who is killed by osmanic turks in 1915 when was been Armenian GENOCIDE by them.
April 1915 was the beginning of the monstrous genocide of the Armenians. The Turkish authorities initiated their long-standing schedule of annihilation of the Armenian nation, and started their bloody operation with the intellectuals. Two lists of the banished scientists and artists were made: those who were included in the first list were to be exiled to Haiash, and the second group - to Changr. Those who were in the first list were killed at once. Komitas, together with many friends and colleagues happened to be included in the second list. The terrible journey to the place of the exile took them seven weeks. Certainly, from the very first day, the exiled in this miserable caravan clearly realized the tragical end that awaited them.
The distinguished Armenian poets Siamanto and Daniel Varouzhan, who were friends with Komitas while in Constantinople prison, tried to lavish attentions on him and ease his lot. But this Calvary route dragging on for months and was fraught with such awful physical and intellectual shocks anyone could go mad, let alone a musician who knew no other world but music and songs.
The first shock on Komitas was at the moment when by singing he tried to make his friends to understand what would be done with them by those murderers. Suddenly an awful deafening stroke interrupted his singing: having arisen from behind his back, a beast of a policeman all of a sudden stunned the Master with a strong blow. Komitas turned pale and could not move from the unexpected force of the impact.