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New ‘Armenian genocide’ bill looming in US Congress

16 June 2011 [11:00] - TODAY.AZ
Pro-Armenian lawmakers have introduced a fresh congressional resolution calling on the United States to recognize World War I-era deaths of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire as "genocide," a top U.S. Armenian group said late Tuesday.

"The Armenian genocide resolution, introduced by Congressman Robert Dold, a Republican from Illinois, and Adam Schiff, a Democrat from California, calls upon the president to recognize the Armenian genocide and encourages the U.S. government to apply the lessons of this tragedy to prevent future crimes against humanity," the Armenian National Committee of America, or ANCA, said in a statement about the measure introduced in the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the U.S. Congress.

"This measure, identical to H.R. 252 during the previous session of Congress, has been adopted by the Foreign Affairs Committee four times over the past 11 years, but has yet to reach the floor for an up-or-down vote of the full U.S. House of Representatives," ANCA said.

Pro-Armenian lawmakers tried to hold a House floor vote on the previous resolution in December, days before the last Congress expired, but were not successful in their effort.

Separately, a bipartisan group of U.S. legislators is set to introduce another resolution urging Turkey “to fully respect the right of Christians to practice their faith in freedom, including through the rightful return of confiscated churches” to Armenians, Greeks, Syriacs and other Christian communities, ANCA reported.

Church properties

The "return of churches" resolution, spearheaded by senior House Foreign Affairs Committee member Ed Royce, a Republican from California, and the panel’s ranking Democrat, Howard Berman, also from California, "calls upon the government of Turkey to honor its international obligations to end all forms of religious persecution and to protect the rights and religious freedoms of Christians. The measure specifically calls upon Turkey to return confiscated Christian church properties," ANCA said.

"We want to thank Congressmen Royce, Berman, Dold and Schiff for their leadership in working toward a truthful and just resolution of the Armenian genocide," said ANCA Chairman Ken Hachikian.

"Conditions in Turkey have deteriorated with violent hate crimes increasingly linked to religion," Royce said. "My resolution urges Turkey to protect its vulnerable religious minorities. They should be able to freely practice, worship and study their faith without fear of discrimination or violence. We expect Turkey to make good on its obligation to provide this protection."

Added Berman: "By expropriating church properties, harassing worshippers and refusing to grant full legal status to some Christian groups, Turkey has failed to fulfill its obligation as a signatory to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which requires ‘freedom of thought, conscience, and religion.’ Turkey must end its deeply disturbing practice of religious discrimination, cease all restrictions on gatherings for religious prayer and education and return stolen church property."

Armenia claims up to 1.5 million Armenians were systematically killed in 1915 under the rule of the Ottoman Empire. Turkey denies this, saying that any deaths were the result of civil strife that erupted when Armenians took up arms for independence in eastern Anatolia. Ankara also rejects claims that Turkey persecutes Christians.

The Armenian Assembly of America, or AAA, another large U.S. Armenian group, also welcomed the new efforts by the U.S. lawmakers. “We remain deeply troubled by the ongoing trend in Turkey and its treatment of Christian communities within the country,” said AAA board member Van Krikorian.


/Hurriyet Daily News/
URL: http://www.today.az/news/regions/88290.html

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