Armenian Genocide Measure Plays Role in Rogan Reelection Bid

In a clash between hometown politics and global diplomacy, Republican congressional leaders hope to pass a resolution recognizing the mass killings of Armenians as genocide--a move designed to help Rep. James E. Rogan (R-Glendale), although it would potentially offend an important U.S. ally.

The resolution would recognize the killing of 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Turks between 1915 and 1923 as genocide. But the Clinton administration has objected that the measure would damage relations with Turkey, a strategic North Atlantic Treaty Organization ally.

House GOP leaders admit that they are moving the measure faster than usual to lend an election year boost to Rogan, who is in a tough reelection campaign in a district that includes a large Armenian American population.

But some Democrats who are among the measure’s 141 co-sponsors say they also would like to see a vote on the measure because of the issue’s importance to Armenian Americans.

“It’s safe to say that, since it’s close to an election, that it’s easier to influence members to move a bill because they’re looking for support from the Armenian community,” said Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.), co-chairman of the congressional Caucus on Armenian Issues. “In this business, you take what you can get. . . . I just want to get this thing passed.”

Controversy over the resolution stems from one emotionally charged word: genocide.

The resolution calls on the president to ensure that U.S. diplomats dealing with human rights are educated about the U.S. response to the Armenian genocide and urges the president to use the word “genocide” in his annual message commemorating the mass killings.

No one disputes that hundreds of thousands of Armenians died during the waning days of the Ottoman Empire. But Turkey has long denied any systematic campaign to wipe out a group of people based on their ethnicity.

Baki Ilkin, Turkey’s ambassador in Washington, said in a letter to members of Congress that his nation would consider passage of the resolution “an unfriendly act.”

“I wish that the Armenian lobby had spent more time and energy on improving the Armenian economy and Armenia’s relations with Turkey instead of trying to seek approval for its one-sided and distorted version of the events of 1915,” he wrote.

Congress has wrestled with the issue for years. In 1984, the House approved a measure setting a day of remembrance for Armenian genocide victims, but the Senate adjourned without acting on the measure. In 1996, the House approved a measure cutting foreign aid to Turkey until the country acknowledged that genocide had occurred, but the provision was removed from the final bill by House-Senate negotiators.

The current resolution, introduced nearly a year ago, appeared destined to die in the waning days of the session, which is scheduled to end in early October.

But House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) pledged during a recent campaign stop in Rogan’s district to bring the resolution to the House floor for a vote before Congress adjourns.

The measure is being closely watched by the nation’s estimated 1.5 million Armenian Americans, about one-third of whom live in Southern California, home to the largest Armenian community outside Armenia.

It has generated fierce lobbying on Capitol Hill, with several former congressmen lobbying against the resolution.

Rep. George Radanovich (R-Mariposa), the resolution’s chief sponsor along with Rep. David E. Bonior (D-Mich.), said Wednesday that he expects it to be approved by the House International Relations Committee today but predicted a close vote.

House GOP leaders gave Rogan credit for pushing for a vote on the resolution.

“The fact that it’s coming to the floor is a tribute to Jim Rogan’s leadership,” said Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.), who as chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee is fighting to maintain GOP control of the House.

Rogan’s Democratic challenger, state Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank), said that he supports the measure but wonders why it took so long for Rogan to get a vote.

“If the pressure of my campaign can get the resolution passed, I think it would be a wonderful thing for the community,” Schiff said.

Rogan said that he has brought up the Armenian genocide measure in almost every conversation with Hastert since he became speaker.

“Nobody is under the illusion that passing this on the floor will be easy,” Rogan said. “Everybody has seen the incredible diplomatic and international pressure brought to bear on members.”

In a meeting earlier this month with the Turkish president, President Clinton voiced his opposition to the resolution.

“There is no doubt that the Armenians suffered greatly during World War I,” Walter B. Slocombe, undersecretary of defense, said in a letter to Rep. Benjamin A. Gilman (R-N.Y.), chairman of the House International Relations Committee. “However, passing judgment on this history through legislation could only have a negative effect on Turkish-American relations and on our security interests in the region.”

Aram Hamparian, executive director of the Armenian National Committee of America in Washington, responded: “America’s true long-term interests are served by a moral foreign policy that would not deny genocide for political reasons.”

Pallone added: “The bottom line is that countries have to face their past.”