WASHINGTON -- Much of the controversy surrounding a congressional committee's approval of a resolution condemning as genocide the massacre of Armenians during the collapse of the Ottoman Empire has focused on the action's geopolitical ramifications. But a key question remains unanswered: How did the world's most powerful body of lawmakers come to feel compelled to register a position on an event that happened almost a century ago? By some accounts, the answer is simple: lobbying. Others, however, contend that the power of the Armenian lobby in the United States has been exaggerated and that the genocide resolution has gotten traction in Congress on moral grounds alone. While Armenian genocide resolutions have been considered at the committee level in Congress for decades, the passage of the latest one by a 27-21 vote Oct. 10 made international headlines when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) vowed to push it to a full House vote. Congressional support for the measure appears to have waned during the weeks since, however, as Turkey, angered by the resolution, threatens to launch military operations in Northern Iraq against Kurdish Workers Party militants.
Armenian Genocide: the Lobbying Behind the Congressional Resolution
