The Associated Press reports today (February 27, 2010) that a congressional panel will vote the week of March 1, 2010 on a resolution that would recognize as genocide the World War I-era killings of more than a million Armenians by Ottoman Turks.
U.S. President Barack Obama said as a candidate that he believed the killings were genocide; however, he has not taken a public position on the congressional measure. A congressional resolution that would recognize the genocide could alienate Turkey, a NATO ally and traditional friend of the United States that is crucial to U.S. foreign policy goals.
Past presidential administrations have defeated similar resolutions through public cajoling about U.S. national security interests and behind-the-scenes lobbying. The U.S. still wants Turkey's support for American operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Ankara has long made it clear that approval of the resolution could result in a significant negative impact on Turkish relations with the United States. Although Turkey continues to deny its genocide, most historians believe that Turkey was responsible for the deaths of as many as one and one-half million Armenians during and shortly after World War I.
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