The Issue of Armenian Genocide to Be Discussed in Both Chambers of U.S. Senate

PanARMENIAN.Net - The submitted document calls the president to give an adequate appraisal of the events of 1915 in the traditional April 24 message to the Armenian community. John Ensign and Richard Durbin insist that George Bush has to "qualify the murder of millions of Armenians as genocide". It is worth reminding that yet in late 1980s the US Congress made a decision according to which the president has to address Armenian community of America every year on April 24. However, none of the US presidents has ever distinctly pronounces the word "genocide". Nevertheless, Ronald Reagan who used to be the head of Armenian-populated state of California indirectly recognized the fact of Armenian genocide and senators Ensign and Durbin lay special stress on this precedent. Besides, they refer to the outstanding diplomat, former US Ambassador to Ottoman Empire Henry Morgenthau who was one of the firsts to qualify the massacres organized by young Turks as genocide.

The draft resolution does not suppose mechanical recognition of Armenian genocide by the US administration. In case of approval, the document will be just a recommendation and the White House can neglect it if necessary. Interestingly, senators Ensign and Durbin do not dare to suggest their colleagues to recognize Armenian genocide despite the administration's will. They urge the president to do so, knowing that George Bush is not inclined to that. However, the possible approval of the initiative by the Senate will be a significant breakthrough in the issue of international recognition of Armenian genocide. Approval of the document will already be enough to consider United States as the 17th country to recognize Armenian genocide.

This is the first serious attempt to promote recognition of Armenian genocide by the upper chamber of the American parliament. Previously, Armenian lobbyists paid more attention to the work with the House of Representatives where three attempts had been made to put «Armenian resolutions» on the agenda. Currently, in the House of Representatives there are two projects directly or indirectly mentioning Armenian genocide. In September the Committee for International Affairs approved resolutions 316 and 195. In both documents the events of 1915 were qualified as genocide. The first document introduced by the co-chairmen of the Congress Armenian group Frank Pallone and Joe Nolenberg calls the administration not to allow distortions of real facts in the appraisal of events that were really a genocide. The second project is dedicated to regional problems and Armenian genocide is mentioned only in passing.

Thus, it is quite obvious that the massive efforts to achieve recognition of Armenian genocide on a legislative level are made in both chambers at the same time. Now, it is hard to say in which chamber success will be achieved. In any case approval of one of the resolutions in one of the chambers will mean that approval also in the other chamber. There are certain grounds to suppose that success is guaranteed if the project is put on the agenda. In order to put the issue on the agenda of the House of Representatives it is necessary to collect signatures of one third of congressmen, that is to say at least 142. Promoters of the resolution have already collected about 130 signatures. Meanwhile the number of people in the Armenian group of the Congress has reached 149. (The last congressman was Mike Fitzpatrick who joined the group last week) This fact gives grounds to hope that very soon the US administration will have to agree that legislators call spade a spade.