USA: The Recognition of the Genocide reaches an important stage

The House Foreign Affairs Committee adopts Armenian Genocide Resolution

Washington DC, USA - Wednesday October 10, at around 17:30 (23:30 in Western Europe) the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of the Representatives of the United States voted for House Resolution 106 asserting the recognition of the genocide of the Armenians. The resolution was adopted with a vote of 27 to 21.

This victory was obtained in spite of the high level of pressure exerted simultaneously by the American Executive and the Turkish State, and in particular through lobbies equipped with exorbitant financial means: Whereas Ankara had sent not less than three “diplomatic” delegations to intimidate the American members of Parliament, the White House and the State Department by the voices of Mr. George W. Bush, Mrs. Condolezza Rice and Mr. Daniel Fried exhorted the members of the Congress to reject this resolution.

The members of the Committee supported by a large movement of citizens did not take into account these pressures. “We greet the political courage of the deputies of the Foreign Affairs Committee which knew how to reject the cynicism of Ankara” declared Hilda Tchoboian, the President of the Euro-Armenian Federation, and continued “We also want to pay tribute to the hundreds of American activists, organizations of defence of the human rights, people from all religions, all minorities, and to the Armenian organizations of the United States which carried out this struggle of civilization against cruelty”.

The Euro-Armenian Federation points out that Mr. Babacan, with whom Europe negotiates the accession of Turkey, recently threatened openly the Jewish minority of Turkey because the United States Jewish community supports the resolution H.R.106. It also informs that the Prime Minister of Turkey, Mr Erdogan has asked the Turkish Parliament, which is controlled by his party, the AKP, to authorise the invasion of the North of Iraq in reprisal to the vote of the American representatives. The American State Department has issued a warning to the American residents in Turkey of possible violence against them.

“These extreme and disproportionate measures show that the Turkish government has a long way to go before reaching the values and use of moderation which are those of Europe. They also prove that Turkey which fallaciously sells to us that it is a factor of peace and stability, in fact constitutes a regional threat” continued the President of the Federation.

“In the United States as in Europe, to pass in silence over the Genocide becomes a serious act of complicity with the Turkish denials. We expect the European Parliament to become, once again the voice of conscience of Europe” concluded Hilda Tchoboian. The Euro-Armenian Federation requests the European Parliament that it demands, in all European acts and resolutions on Turkey, that the later stops its practice of denial. It announces that the 2nd Convention of the Armenians of Europe which will be held in the European Parliament on 15 and 16 October 2007, will pay tribute to the European members of Parliament who voted, 20 years ago, the first international recognition of the genocide. The session on the afternoon of the 16th, will be dedicated to the topic of the recognitions and the denials. Mr. Aram Hamparian, director of Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) will give an account of the vote in the American congress.