The U.S. House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee is scheduled to vote Wednesday on a bill that would brand the killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915 a genocide. President Bush opposes the bill, however, the Democratic control over the House may produce enough votes to pass both the Foreign Affairs Committee and the full House. Turkey's state-run news agency, Anatolian, quotes Turkish officials as stating the bill's passage would harm strategic relations with the U.S., however, the bill's passage would have no impact on U.S. foreign policy.
Armenians claim more than 1.5 million people were killed during the decline of the 600-year-old Ottoman Empire. Turkish officials, however, claim that the death of Armenians was part of the larger chaos accompanying the birth of modern Turkey and cite the deaths of several Muslim Turks as evidence.
It is a crime in Turkey to refer to the deaths of the Armenians as genocide. The Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk was persecuted for the reference, and a Turkish-American editor was killed by an ultra-nationalist for calling for Turkish responsibility of the alleged atrocities.
The bill's passage could have foreign policy effects despite congressional intent. Turkey is a key NATO ally and is positioned in a sensitive area bordering Iraqi Kurdistan. The passage of the bill may result in Turkey reconsidering the role of U.S. troops in the region and prompt Ankara to take a stronger position against the semi-autonomous Kurds.
Members of the Armenian elite were rounded up and executed on April 24th, 1915 at the behest of the Ottoman government. This led to a watershed of persecution against Armenians, as the government forced the deportation of most of their population. A special unit known as the Teskilat-i Mahsusa, or Special Organization, had the mission to exterminate the Armenians. According to Vahakn Dadrian, a preeminent scholar on the Armenian genocide, The Special Organization's mission "was to deploy in remote areas of Turkey's interior and to ambush and destroy convoys of Armenian deportees [The Special Organization's] principal duty was the execution of the Armenian genocide." It is estimated that millions of Armenians died of starvation and disease during their forced deportation.
French officials recently proposed similar legislation declaring the killings of Armenians genocide. The law did not pass, however, it has chilled relations between Turkey and France.
Turkish officials were lobbying against the bill, stating “if the Armenian genocide resolution passes, that will be the moment when relations between Turkey and the United States collapse.”
