Third Time Armenian Genocide Bill Lands on Speaker’s Desk
WASHINGTON, Oct. 5 – For Aram A. Jeknavorian of Pelham, N.H., the Armenian genocide bill isn’t just a piece of legislation.
It’s about righting a wrong, he said, and honoring the memory of the 1.5 million Armenians killed between 1915 and 1923.
It’s also personal for Jeknavorian, a member of Merrimack Valley’s chapter of the Armenian National Committee of America.
His father, Abraham, a young boy in 1915, was forced to flee his home in the middle of the night for the safety of a friend’s house. He left his parents behind, as Ottoman Turkish soldiers descended upon their town of Ordu. Returning home a week later, Abraham found his father but learned his mother had been detained. She was released and then later detained again.
The ordeal took its toll and Jeknavorian’s grandmother died shortly after her second release, he said.
For so many Armenian Americans, coping with the memories is a shared history that has yet to find closure.
In September, the. House International Relations Committee approved two resolutions. The first recognizes the Armenian genocide and urges Turkey to take responsibility for its predecessor, the Ottoman Empire. The other calls upon President Bush to ensure that the country’s foreign policy reflects an understanding of human rights, ethnic cleansing and genocide as it is documented in the U.S. archive of the Armenian genocide.
Resolutions have been introduced in the House in earlier sessions but have yet to reach the floor for a vote. The fate of the current resolutions rests with Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), who has twice blocked a floor vote.
“We aren’t looking for reparations,” said John Amboian, 74, of Andover and a member of the Armenian Assembly of America.
What matters is recognizing the genocide, and that hasn’t happened because of Turkey’s relationship with the United States, he said.
“If the bill were approved by the full House, it would be a clear message to the world that the U.S. won’t push a horrible event under the rug to pacify Turkey,” Amboian said.
But in a Sept. 9 letter to Hastert, former national security adviser Brent Scowcroft, who is chairman of the American-Turkish Council , said: “Turkey’s strategic location at the crossroads of Europe, the Middle East, the Caucasus and the Balkans places it at the center of America’s current and long term strategic interests.. H. Res. 195, while purporting to support Turkey’s [European Union] accession talks, and H. Res. 316, do exactly the opposite. The resolutions encourage those who would pull Turkey away from the West. The careless use of genocide language provides an excuse to do so, delivering a final blow to American interests in the region.”
Last week a rally was held outside Hastert’s district office in Batavia, with participants urging him to schedule a vote. The event’s headliner, System of a Down-a rock band whose four members are of Armenian descent-drew a crowd of about 100, according the Armenian National Committee national office in Washington, a co-organizer of the event.
“We’ve heard the bill is going through the normal process,” said Elizabeth Chouldjian, the Armenian National Committee’s spokeswoman in Washington, D.C. “Our concern is it went through committee in 2000 and 2004 and never made it through. We are hoping to see a change.”
The House majority leader’s office said on Wednesday the resolution hasn’t been added to the schedule of floor votes. Rep. Martin Meehan and others are pushing to get the resolution to the floor this fall, his office said.
“The world turned its head nine decades ago when genocide in Turkey took over a million Armenian lives,” Meehan told the Eagle-Tribune. “Today, the world must not turn its head again. History must remember when genocide happens both to honor the dead and as a reminder of what prejudice can do if not confronted.”
The local effort in Merrimack Valley has been focused on getting support for the bill, Jeknavorian said. He credits the collaboration of other area organizations-the Armenian Relief Society, the Armenian Genocide Commemorative Committee and churches such as St. Gregory Armenian Church in North Andover and the Armenian Church at Hye Point, which serves Lawrence and Haverhill-in getting backing from legislators.
Every Massachusetts and New Hampshire representative is a member of the Congressional Caucus on Armenian Issues and has co-sponsored the bill.
Jeknavorian said it would be “a great relief” if the bill passed, not only for Armenians but for the international community when it faces genocide, such as in the Darfur region of Sudan.
But for Armenian families torn apart and displaced nearly a century ago, there may be reason for the younger generations to hope.
“[Our parents] did as much as they could to survive,” Jeknavorian said. “They were not as politically connected as we are as U.S. citizens. We are doing what they would have done. We are acting on their behalf.”
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