World

House Drops Genocide Measure

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

October 11, 2000 / 4:33 PM EDT / CBS

House Speaker Dennis Hastert shelved the measure Thursday—just hours before a scheduled House vote—after a letter arrived from the president which warned the resolution "could have far-reaching negative consequences for the United States."

The president said the danger to U.S. interests was especially great a time of crisis in the Middle East.

Ankara had threatened retaliation against Washington if the House approved the measure. It had threatened to exclude U.S. companies from lucrative defense contracts and hinted at withdrawing permission for U.S. warplanes to use a Turkish base for policing a no-fly zone in northern Iraq.

Turkey had also prepared to resume full pumping from an Iraqi oil pipeline, but denied it did so in retaliation for the resolution.

"The president believes that passage of this resolution may adversely impact the situation in the Middle East and risk the lives of Americans," Hastert, R-Ill., said in a statement. "Every patriotic American should heed the president's request."

Armenians say 1.5 million of their people were slaughtered as part of the Ottoman Empire's campaign to force them out of eastern Turkey between 1915 and 1923.

Turkey, a key U.S. military ally and NATO member, says the death count is inflated and that Armenians were killed or displaced as the Ottoman Empire tried to quell civil unrest. The Ottoman Empire became Turkey in 1923.

Though nonbinding, the measure would have put the House on record as siding with the Armenians in the long-running dispute.

Turkey praised Congress' decision.

Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit told reporters he had sent a letter to Mr. Clinton thanking him for his intervention.

"This will give new impetus to Turkish-U.S. strategic solidarity," Ecevit said.

"You will always be remembered as the best of friends of Turkey," he quoted the letter to Mr. Clinton as saying.

The President's Letter

Click here to read President Clinton's letter to the Speaker Dennis Hastert asking him to cancel the vote.

In it, the president writes, "Ultimately, this painful matter can only be resolved by both sides examining thpast together."

Local observers, however, said Turkey should fully open Ottoman imperial archives, sponsor investigations into the accusations and improve ties with eastern neighbor Armenia to forestall further criticism over the treatment of Armenians during a controversial episode in the country's history.

The spiritual head of Turkey's Armenians urged a dispassionate and impartial inquiry into the events and lamented use of the issue as political capital.

"This matter must be taken out of the hands of politicians who have seized upon it for their own ends. Whatever we choose to call the events of history, no one has the right to exploit human suffering," Patriarch Mesrob II said in a statement.

Armenian-Americans denounced the decision.

"I think it's outrageous that the Clinton administration has bowed to these threats from Turkey—It sets a very dangerous precedent," said Ross Vartian, executive director of the Armenian Assembly of America.

Since 1975, at least seven resolutions concerning the Armenian genocide have been considered by Congress, but only two commemorative resolutions passed, in 1975 and 1984.

After the first world war, the Turkish government tried the architects of the alleged genocide and courts sentenced them to death. The sentences were never carried out.

The resolution, introduced by Rep. George Radanovich, R.-Cal., called upon the president to "ensure that the foreign policy of the United States reflects appropriate understanding" of the genocide.