YEREVAN (RFE/RL)–The opposition Armenian Revolutionary Federation blamed on Friday Armenia’s controversial agreements with Turkey for the difficulty with which pro-Armenian lawmakers pushed their latest genocide resolution through a U.S. congressional committee.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee approved the non-binding measures by 23 votes to 22. The outcome of the vote, which lasted for over 90 minutes, hang in the balance until the last minute. The panel passed similar resolutions, most recently in 2007, by much wider margins in the past.
Committee members opposed to the resolution argued, among other things, that the fence-mending Turkish-Armenian protocols call for the formation of a joint “subcommission” that would study the 1915 mass killings of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire. They also said calling the massacres a genocide could scuttle Turkish parliamentary ratification of the protocols.
Armen Rustamian, the chairman of the ARF’s supreme body in Armenia, said this is the reason why several U.S. congressmen declined to vote for the genocide bill this time around.
“I think all those who followed the committee debate understood and saw very well just how these protocols can put the brakes on the process of international recognition of the Armenian genocide,” Rustamian told a news conference. “When we had been saying that for months, many thought that this is just a partisan view.”
Giro Manoyan, the party’s political director, agreed, saying that the protocols have given opponents of U.S. recognition of the genocide a new argument.
The ARF has been highly critical of President Serzh Sarkisian’s policy of rapprochement with Turkey that culminated in the signing of the protocols last October. Their leaders have repeatedly said that Ankara will exploit the would-be historical “subcommission” to deter the United States and other nations from recognizing the genocide.
Sarkisian and his political allies insist, however that the Turkish-Armenian rapprochement will not slow the recognition process.
A few month ago Bejamin Natanyahoo was in U.S. on TV channels at the anniversary of the Jewish Holocaust holding a floor plan map of the Auschwitz camp to show to American public the hard evidence of the inhumane acts by Nazi agents.
We had hoped that President Sargsyan would do the same at this point in time and let the American public know the extent of the crimes against Armenian nation. Instead, he is sitting in his presidential palace with an expectation that others will do the heavy lifting.
Unfortunately, we have to wait until an ARF-affiliated president is elected to office in Armenia, who would care for all Armenians around the world, especially for the descendants of the Genocide survivors.
May God be between us and harm.
If it wasn’t for the treacherous protocols, the Armenian Genocide resolution, H. Res. 252 would have passed with a very clear majority instead of a slim majority of one, if you were following the live proceedings on Yerkir media you would have noticed that almost all those who voted against the resolution mentioned the protocols as an excuse to vote against it, not surprisingly Armenia’s channel 1 TV only showed 5 minutes of the proceedings in the beginning and than started to show a film than came back to announce the results, the reason for them not to show the proceedings live to the public is very simple, they didn’t want the public to hear all those opponents of the resolution conveniently using the protocols as the main reason for them voting against it, it was so obvious the damage the protocols have done to our cause.
Serzh and his corrupt bunch of crooks should take notice of what the Armenian nation has advised him not to do, instead of running around like a headless chicken.
I say drop the protocols now before there is more serious damage.
I think, the blame should go to the USA government .
The Protocols are a creation of great powers. The main goal was to take Armenia from the Russia’s orbit and put it as a satellite around Turkey. The machinery for such a move is extremely expensive and complex, evidently. The whole “drama” that took place on the US Congress floor is a small part of that machine.
The main functions are
a) to show to Turks that the cards are still in game,
b) to show to the world, that yes, we can lie. We can do it in a very visible way. If you want be like us, we can sell you a training lessons.
c) to let Armenians know that if you don have a resources for replacing our rusted bond with Turkey, you better stay away.
For Armenians the lesson is:
a) Keep pushing “No” to Protocols. As I said before, after protocols – which are a revision of Kars Treaty, are signed between the Republic of Armenia and Turkey, any event prior to the Kars Treaty can not be a subject for international courts. Main argument now must be – how secure can an interaction (economical, political, military, intelligence, cultural-educational, even sport) be with a country reacting so violently to any display of different opinion? Did direct neighbors benefit from having their borders open with Turkey? While Turkey is spending American taxpayers dollars for dictating their will to Capitol Hill, Greece suffers free fall. Armenia, think deep and long about this.
b) Republicans must win in any other election (not because they are better, they lie less).
For Turks the message is;
a) recognize the Armenian genocide.
f I were a lawyer, an international lawyer of human rights, I would
a) take now both H. Obama and H. Clinton to the International Court of Human Rights and charge them with a trivialization and commercialization of genocides. This administration knowingly promotes a neglect of the human rights of an ancient Cristian Armenian people and destruction of their Republic(s). Protocols are encouraged in order to legitimate their rhetoric denial and avoid impeachment; to gain green-pass in war-projects; to keep a life-style which does not fit the American taxpayers power anymore.
If it wasn’t for the treacherous protocols, the Armenian Genocide resolution, H. Res. 252 would have passed with a very clear majority instead of a slim majority of one, if you were following the live proceedings on Yerkir media you would have noticed that almost all those who voted against the resolution mentioned the protocols as an excuse to vote against it, not surprisingly Armenia’s channel 1 TV only showed 5 minutes of the proceedings in the beginning and than started to show a film than came back to announce the results, the reason for them not to show the proceedings live to the public is very simple, they didn’t want the public to hear all those opponents of the resolution conveniently using the protocols as the main reason for them voting against it, it was so obvious the damage the protocols have done to our cause.
Serzh and his corrupt bunch of crooks should take notice of what the Armenian nation has advised him not to do, instead of running around like a headless chicken.
I say drop the protocols now before there is more serious damage.
Well once again the A.R.F. and most of the Diasporans including myself were right for feeling uptight and plainly frightened by the protocols. The protocols were a very dangerous path for both Sarkissian and Nalbandyan to take and once again it is coming to haunt us all. I heard every argument from the opposing US Representatives of the House Foreign Affairs Committe and many were saying the time is not right and they brought up the disgraceful protocols, and the way they understood that the Armenian Genocide will be settled between Armenia and Turkey. As if the veracity of the Armenian Genocide was to be questioned and it is going to be resolved with the new joint “subcommission’. Meanwhile it may writte-off the historical “subcommission”s dignified and the extensive work that they have been doing now for at least 25-30 years. This is terrible. The Armenian Genocide’s veracity can NEVER be questioned and the denyalist Turkey CANNOT take part and create a new “subcommission”. It will only be a very subjective view of the Genocide and Turkey will control the new “subcommission” and re-write history, nothing else. In short, one cannot trust to work with a denyalist country as Turkey to take part in these matters. They will only control it to deny it, nothing else.
Hye, once again, the Turks have employed another PLOY – this time the Protcols… another ‘delaying’ agreement – immediately adding new demands to change the rules midstream – and the whole
agreement becomes a fraud – just another delaying tactic – another agreement with which Turks say they
will agree – but yet donot. This is a frequent Turkish stance – with all their foreign relations.
Turks have agreements with many, over the years, that still await the Turk’s signature…
Turks’ policy is: say yes to agreements – but sign none. (Make sense?)
So, again, the Turk is not able to join the civlized societies of the world – unable to make committments to be kept, unable to be a partner with civilized nations. And yet, this may well be for the good…
Turks lie to themselves. Turks lie to their own Turkish citizens when they are unable to offer them truths of their own history – their own Turkish students to learn that which the world recognizes as Turkey!
Turks cannot face telling truths about themselves – knowing they are guilty together with their Ottoman leaders of the Genocide of the Armenians – in all their denials, in all the millions they pay to former USA congressmen to lobby and pursue the denials…
Yet, if the Turks were not guilty of perpetrating the Genocide of the Armenians under the cover of WW1,
and continued into the years following (1915-1923) why do Turks continue to pay millions for the denials of the Turkish Genocide – still – with the world watching.
– and for how long shall the Turk continue to lie before the world
– and how long shall the Turk continue to lie to their Turkish citizens who know not the truths?
Turks claim Armenians losses (slaughters, rapes, kidnappings and more) were ‘only’ in the hundreds of thousands – too – Turks claim they too suffered losses of hundreds of thousands. The Turks lie. Armenians were unarmed by the Turks prior to their marches to their deaths! In this instance the Turks
includes their own losses suffered from their involvement in WW1 – not by the victims of a Genocide!
– First, the Armenian nation was descimated – 1,500,000 slaughtered, kidnapped, raped, terrorized and the Survivors dispersed across the world to the civilized nations.
– Second, Turkey was allied with the losers of WWI and its major losses were suffered then
– Third, Turkey was ‘practicing’ the planned Genocide of the Armenians since the 1890s – and although they
promised much to the Armenians – lies, they completed the Turkish Genocide of the Armenians – beginning on April 24, 1915 – in denials, the Genocide of the Christian Armenians continues until today – 2010.
Manooshag