The House is likely to take up a long-unsuccessful resolution to condemn the 1915-1917 Armenian genocide after House Democrats set it up to clear a key committee hurdle next week, according to Yahoo News.
The House Rules Committee is expected to take up the resolution as early as next week before it reaches the chamber floor, according to Yahoo.
{mosads}“I’m proud that the Rules Committee will be considering this resolution next week,” Committee Chairman Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) told Yahoo News. “Not acknowledging the genocide is a stain on our human rights record and sends the exact wrong message to human rights abusers around the world.”
McGovern’s district in the Worcester area includes the oldest Armenian American community in the U.S.
The resolution has failed to gain traction in the House for years due in large part to sensitivity around the issue in Turkey, a key U.S. ally. Now, however, the measure has added momentum amid widespread anger at Turkey’s incursion into northeastern Syria following the U.S. withdrawal from the region.
The Ottoman Turkish government systematically killed about 1.5 million Armenians during the genocide, and before the Holocaust Adolf Hitler reportedly argued that the genocide of German Jews would go unpunished, saying “Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?”
Turkey does not recognize the killings as acts of genocide and has for years lobbied against their recognition as such. Congress has passed resolutions condemning the genocide, but it has been several decades since one passed. Ronald Reagan is the only president to have acknowledged the genocide.
“With the president caving in to [President Recep Tayyip] Erdoğan, it’s up to Congress to speak out for America,” Aram Hamparian, the executive director of the Armenian National Committee of America, told Yahoo News, adding that the resolution would show Turkey “that Washington won’t be bullied, U.S. policy can’t be hijacked, and American principles are not for sale.”
Bryan Ardouny, executive director of the Armenian Assembly of America, said in a statement to The Hill that the assembly “greatly appreciates the efforts of Armenian Caucus leadership and welcomes the decision to bring H.Res. 296 to the House floor.”
“This bipartisan resolution affirms the Armenian Genocide and America’s unprecedented humanitarian relief to help save the survivors of the first genocide of the twentieth century,” Ardouny said. “We urge all Members to support this important human rights measure, and send a strong message that the days of genocide denial are over.”