United States resolution on Armenian Genocide
The Resolution Affirming the United States Record on the Armenian Genocide and the Resolution Expressing the Sense of the Senate that it is the Policy of the United States to Commemorate the Armenian Genocide Through Official Recognition and Remembrance are landmark Congressional resolutions that formally affirm recognition and define American policy on the Armenian Genocide, the systematic mass extermination of 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Turks from 1915-1923. The U.S. House of Representatives passed H. Res 296 on October 29, 2019 by a vote of 405-11, affirming that it is the official policy of the United States to commemorate and recognize the Armenian Genocide, reject association of the US Government with all forms of its denial, and to promote public education of the Armenian Genocide. S. Res 150 is a similar landmark resolution that the U.S. Senate passed on December 12, 2019 by unanimous consent. With the passing of these two resolutions, the United States officially recognizes the Armenian Genocide after decades of recognition efforts by Armenian-American groups and the IAGS, and fierce opposition by denialist and historical revisionist forces representing Turkey on the world-stage. It is important to note that this is not the first time the US has recognized the genocide, such recognitions have been made in 1951, 1984, and by President Ronald Reagan in a 1981 speech addressing crimes against humanity. Due to Turkey's fierce opposition and warnings that passing such a resolution would damage US-Turkish relations, the US had for decades opted to not antagonize an ally in the Middle East by avoiding using the term "Genocide" to describe the extermination of the Armenian people.
Many previous attempts were made in previous decades to define official US policy on the genocide. A notable attempt at a similar measure was H. Res 106. The resolution was introduced by Adam Schiff on January 30, 2007, during the 110th United States Congress. It was a non-binding resolution of the House alone, calling upon the U.S. President
The resolution passed the House Foreign Relation Committee by a 27-21 vote, but did not reach the house floor.
Background
Affirmation of the United States Record on the Armenian Genocide Resolution calls upon the President to ensure that U.S. foreign policy reflects appropriate understanding and sensitivity concerning issues related to human rights, ethnic cleansing, and genocide documented in the U.S. record relating to the Armenian Genocide and the consequences of the failure to realize a just resolution and in the President's annual message commemorating the Armenian Genocide to characterize the systematic and deliberate annihilation of 1.5 million Armenians as genocide, and to recall the proud history of U.S. intervention in opposition to the Armenian Genocide.Legislative history
Upon its introduction it was referred to United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs where it passed a 27-21 vote and was sent back for a full house vote. On October 26, 2007, in a letter addressed to the House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, four key sponsors of the bill requested a debate on the bill in full House to be postponed. The resolution was not brought to the house floor due to lobbying by Turkey. On October 29, 2019, the full House of Representatives finally passed the resolution by a vote of 405-11.Introduction of resolution
On October 11, 2007, regarding a proposed U.S. House resolution 106, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi said that the measure would be brought to a vote because "While that may have been a long time ago, genocide is taking place now in Darfur, it did within recent memory in Rwanda, so as long as there is genocide there is need to speak out against it..." However, later she was forced to backtrack from a pledge to bring the measure for a vote because of a waning support for this resolution, since many believe that "angering Turkey would hamper efforts in Iraq". A 2015 version of the resolution had 212 co-sponsors, compared to 236 co-sponsors, which it had in early 2007.Co-sponsors
As of now, including Rep. Schiff, the resolution has 215 co-sponsors.At least 11 representatives have withdrawn as cosponsors since October 15, 2007, and the number of cosponsors fell short of a majority of the House.
Opinions
Opposition
The bill has been opposed by the Republic of Turkey, as well as the administration of former U.S. President George W. Bush. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged U.S. lawmakers to drop the resolution. She said: "I continue to believe that the passage of the ... Armenian genocide resolution would severely harm our relationships with Turkey". While a candidate, U.S. President Barack Obama stated that he "stood with the Armenian American community in calling for Turkey's acknowledgment of the Armenian Genocide", but his Secretary of State Hillary Clinton assured Turkey that the White House opposes the resolution.Eight former U.S. secretaries of state, both Republican and Democrat, signed a petition calling for refraining from passing this resolution.
Gregory Meeks, a Democratic representative from New York in the United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs, voted against the resolution, arguing that Congress should focus on the failings of U.S. history, such as slavery or the killings of Native Americans, before it starts condemning the histories of other countries. He said, "We have failed to do what we're asking other people to do ... We have got to clean up our own house."
Zbigniew Brzezinski, a former U.S. national security adviser, stated in an interview to CNN:
As far as a resolution is concerned, I never realized that the House of Representatives was some sort of an academy of learning that passes judgment on historical events. History's full of terrible crimes, and there is no doubt that many Armenians were massacred in World War I. But whether the House of Representatives should be passing resolutions whether that should be classified as genocide or a huge massacre is I don't think any of its business. It has nothing to do with passing laws, how to run the United States. That's where the constitution created the House of Representatives for.
Columnist Charles Krauthammer expressed a similar view, stating "unequivocally" that the Armenian genocide happened, but "unequivocally" that "the U.S. House of Representatives be expressing itself on this now". Krauthammer also reports that
Even Mesrob Mutafyan, patriarch of the Armenian community in Turkey, has stated that his community is opposed to the resolution, calling it the result of domestic American politics.
Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter also stated in an interview to CNN: "I think if I was in Congress I would not vote for it."
The resolution also received negative reactions in mass media. Richmond Times-Dispatch columnist expressed his surprise that "a Congress that has historically lacked the spine or heart to tackle the nation's ugliest legacies in a meaningful way is censuring Turkey". The newspaper quotes Robert J. Miller, a professor at Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland, Ore., who called it "unbelievable" that Congress is pointing fingers elsewhere while ignoring a U.S. history of black enslavement and the destruction and displacement of Indians.
Republic of Turkey
Turkish ambassador Nabi Şensoy stated: " is the greatest accusation of all against humanity... You cannot expect any nation to accept that kind of labeling."According to the Washington Post, to defeat the initiative for the resolution, the Turkish government "is spending more than $300,000 a month on communications specialists and high-powered lobbyists, including former congressman Bob Livingston".
On October 11, 2007, Gunduz Aktan, a member of the delegation of Turkish parliamentarians, who were in Washington to protest against the resolution, stated:
What was bothering me yesterday was that those who were supporting the Turkish case, 21 of them, they said loud and clear that the events of 1915 amounted to genocide. Despite this fact, because of the strategic importance of Turkey, because of the national interest of the US, they are voting no. This was unbearable.