Affirmation on the United States Record on the Armenian Genocide

STAFF REPORT

On Wednesday, October 10 the House Foreign Affairs Committee voted 27-21 in favor of a resolution on the Armenian Genocide. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi must now bring the resolution to the floor of the House for a full vote on the issue. Majority Leader Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD) has said that he’d like to have a vote by the full House before Thanksgiving.

There are some 226 members of Congress who have already signed on to the resolution as co-sponsors.

A similar resolution supported by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) already has 32 co-sponsors.

The resolution (1) calls upon the President to ensure that the foreign policy of the United States reflects appropriate understanding and sensitivity concerning issues related to human rights, ethnic cleansing, and genocide documented in the United States record relating to the Armenian Genocide and the consequences of the failure to realize a just resolution; and

(2) calls upon the President in the President’s annual message commemorating the Armenian Genocide issued on or about April 24, to accurately characterize the systematic and deliberate annihilation of 1,500,000 Armenians as genocide and to recall the proud history of United States intervention in opposition to the Armenian Genocide.

Both the White House and Turkey have opposed the resolution.