HOUSE PULLS GENOCIDE BILL, DISAPPOINTS ARMENIANS.Byline: Jennifer Hamm Staff Writer GLENDALE - Local Armenian-Americans were bitterly disappointed Thursday when a U.S. House withdrew a bill that would have labeled the massacre of Armenians more than 75 years ago a genocide genocide, in international law, the intentional and systematic destruction, wholly or in part, by a government of a national, racial, religious, or ethnic group. . ``It's wrong. It's just wrong,'' said Vardgez Mosgofian, 70, who was with friends in Glendale's Maple Park. ``It happened, and they're not doing anything about it.'' The measure was pulled less than an hour before it was slated for a full House vote because President Clinton ``believes that passage of this resolution may adversely impact the situation in the Middle East and risk the lives of Americans,'' House Speaker Dennis Hastert said in a statement released. Until late Thursday, the nonbinding resolution appeared to be heading for a House vote. Many people following the bill believed it had the votes to pass, despite its ramifications ramifications npl → Auswirkungen pl . Turkey is a key U.S. military ally, and Turkish officials say the death count is inflated and that Armenians were killed or displaced displaced see displacement. as the Ottoman Empire Ottoman Empire (ŏt`əmən), vast state founded in the late 13th cent. by Turkish tribes in Anatolia and ruled by the descendants of Osman I until its dissolution in 1918. tried to quell quell tr.v. quelled, quell·ing, quells 1. To put down forcibly; suppress: Police quelled the riot. 2. civil unrest. What remained of the Ottoman Empire after World War I became Turkey in 1923. As word spread Thursday that the vote wouldn't occur, local Armenian-Americans expressed disappointment and frustration. ``They've again denied the Armenians,'' said Teni Melidonian, associate publisher of Armenian International Magazine. ``It's an absolute disaster.'' Mosgofian said the resolution was important to him because dozens of members of his family were killed during the collapse of the Ottoman Empire between 1915 and 1923, when 1.5 million Armenians were killed. Mosgofian said his father was the only one of his 14 siblings siblings npl (formal) → frères et sœurs mpl (de mêmes parents) to survive after Turkish soldiers forced them from their homes and brutalized them in 1915. Turkish officials concede con·cede v. con·ced·ed, con·ced·ing, con·cedes v.tr. 1. To acknowledge, often reluctantly, as being true, just, or proper; admit. See Synonyms at acknowledge. 2. that people were brutally killed and attacked during that time but deny a genocide of Armenians. They have lobbied members of Congress heavily in recent months to keep the resolution from being passed. ``We have been sidestepped by the process, and this resolution is fundamentally wrong,'' said Guler Koknar, executive director of the Assembly of Turkish American Associations Assembly of Turkish American Associations is the umbrella organization to create cohesion and cooperation between the large numbers of social/cultural Turkish American organizations around the United States. . The resolution, authored by Rep. George Radanovich George P. Radanovich (born June 20 1955) is a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives since 1995, representing the 19th Congressional District of California. , R-Fresno, was ready to go before the full House after passing through several committees. Hastert had promised Armenian-Americans in the Glendale area, which has the largest population of ethnic Armenians outside of the Republic of Armenia, that he would make sure the bill went to the floor of the House. The deal was made in August, when Hastert visited the area for a fund-raiser for Rep. James Rogan, R-Pasadena. Despite the broken promise, Rogan defended Hastert's decision. ``It took the threat of American lives and because of the crisis in the Middle East for the speaker to withdraw his support,'' Rogan said. Some considered the resolution a political move by Rogan, who co-authored the bill, to win votes for his re-election bid in the most closely watched congressional race in the nation. Rogan has dismissed the notion. CAPTION(S): photo Photo: ``It's wrong. It's just wrong. It happened, and they're not doing anything about it.'' - Vardgez Mosgofian Visiting Glendale from Lebanon (pictured above) |
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