Armenian-Americans counting on Bush

[Guest]

Daily News

January 21, 2001

By Jennifer

Hamm Staff Writer

 

After failing to convince the last Congress to designate the mass killings of

Armenians as a genocide, Armenian-Americans are gearing up to get the measure

passed by the new House.

 

"We'll begin pushing it from day one," said Rep. George Radanovich, R-Fresno,

who will soon introduce a resolution.

 

A number of variables will have to break in favor of the Armenian-American

community if a resolution recognizing a genocide of 1.5 million Armenians

during the fall of the Ottoman Empire is to pass.

 

Leaders within the Armenian-American community are keeping a close eye on

assignments to the International Relations and Rules committees, which will

have to approve the measure before it goes to a vote of the full House.

 

"We still have strong friends in relevant places," said Peter Abajian,

director of the Western Region Office of the Armenian Assembly of America.

"But the committee assignments are not yet fully in place."

 

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Pasadena, said he will co-sponsor the new resolution.

 

"I certainly intend to be very aggressive. . . But the Turkish lobby is very

strong," Schiff said. "I expect a very tough fight."

 

Indeed, there will be another battle, said Osman Tat, director of public

affairs for the Assembly of Turkish American Associations. Tat agrees that

many people died on both sides of the conflict but said Armenians have long

inflated the death tolls.

 

"There are so many holes in the argument," he said. "If this was a genocide,

you wouldn't have to work that hard to prove your point."

 

Supporters of the resolution spent months moving the measure through a maze

of committees only to see the full House vote canceled less than an hour

before its consideration.

 

Former President Clinton asked House Speaker Dennis Hastert to pull the

measure, saying that American lives were in danger if the resolution passed.

Some believed the president's action was the result of pressure from the

Turkish government.

 

However, there are early signs that a similar resolution could build momentum

during the upcoming session. Just last week, France became the first major

Western nation to call the massacres a genocide.

 

The new Bush administration has also indicated some support. During his

campaign, President George W. Bush sent letters to many Armenian-Americans

implying he would support a genocide resolution.

 

Garry Sinanian, a field representative for the Armenian Council of America,

said that letter sealed his vote.

 

Angry that the Clinton administration failed to ever characterize the killing

of Armenians from 1915-18 as a genocide, Sinanian spoke with many local

Armenian-Americans and encouraged them to vote for Bush.

 

"That was the turning point of Armenians voting for Bush," he said. "Whoever

I reached, they didn't have a doubt in their mind that they were going to

vote for Bush."

 

But Abajian said he's seen other presidential candidates make the same

promise during the campaign and then fail to do anything.

 

"Now our job is to see to it that President Bush follow through on his

promise," he said.

 

Passage of the resolution would begin to close the most painful chapter in

Armenian history.

 

"It's a defining factor of the community," Abajian said. "My grandparents

came to this country because they were driven out by the Ottoman Empire. They

didn't pick Detroit as their home."