WASHINGTON — An Armenian genocide resolution reintroduced in Congress on Tuesday will have international repercussions, secret State Department cables show.
The resolution is intended to put the House of Representatives on record applying the term "genocide" to the mass killings of Armenians in the years 1915-23. Identical or similar Armenian genocide resolutions have failed to reach the House floor for the past 16 years.
While perennially frustrated, though, the resolutions reliably succeed in inciting diplomatic chatter, State Department cables made available through WikiLeaks show.
"Any U.S. definition of the events of 1915 as 'genocide' would set off a political firestorm in Turkey, and the effect on our bilateral relationship — including political, military and commercial aspects — would be devastating," a State Department cable sent from Ankara, Turkey, warned on Jan. 26, 2010.
A separate section of the cable, made available through WikiLeaks and classified "secret," noted that the company Sikorsky was trying to sell helicopters and Raytheon was trying to sell an air defense system to Turkey.
Additional State Department cables indicate that Turkish military and intelligence cooperation with U.S. war efforts slowed temporarily in response to previous congressional consideration of a genocide resolution. Other countries, too, can get drawn into the issue.
An Oct. 13, 2009, State Department cable from Tel Aviv, classified "secret" and also made available through WikiLeaks, took note of "Turkey's annual request for Israeli help in blocking the Armenian genocide bill in the Congress."
As it happens, moreover, President Barack Obama talked by telephone Tuesday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. A White House statement said the two leaders "agreed to continue working closely together."
The White House statement didn't explicitly say whether the Armenian genocide resolution came up as a topic.
The resolution was introduced with 57 House supporters on board, 14 of them from California, which has a large Armenian population. It declares that the Ottoman Empire "conceived and carried out" the killing of 1.5 million Armenians.
"This legislation represents an important opportunity for the United States to assume a leadership role in genocide affirmation and genocide prevention, especially in the face of genocide denial," said Bryan Ardouny, the executive director of the Armenian Assembly of America.
The genocide resolutions sometimes have come close to passing before being yanked back.
Last year, in a nail-biter, the House Foreign Affairs Committee approved the resolution by 23-22, prompting Turkey to recall its ambassador temporarily. The bill then stalled. Among the opponents last year was Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., who's since risen to become the chair of the committee.
In 2007, the Armenian genocide resolution attracted 237 House co-sponsors and appeared headed for approval. A combination of Pentagon, State Department and Turkish lobbying pressure persuaded 25 lawmakers to drop their support and the resolution fizzled.
In a similar vein, House Republican leaders in 2000 pulled the plug on the resolution minutes before then-Rep. George Radanovich, R-Calif., was set to bring it up on the floor.
In a flip-flop similar to that shown by previous presidents, Obama supported an Armenian genocide resolution while he was a candidate and then backed off once he was in the White House. He avoids using the term in his annual commemorative statements, issued in April.
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