RESOLUTION ADOPTED

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U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee defied President Bush on Wednesday and approved HR106 the Armenian Genocide Resolution.

The House Foreign Affairs Committee’s 27-21 vote now sends the measure to the House floor - unless the Democratic leadership reverses course and heeds Bush’s warnings.

Divisions within the Foreign Affairs Committee crossed party lines with eight Democrats voting against the measure and eight Republicans voting for it.

Tom Lantos, the committee’s chairman, had opened the debate by admitting the resolution posed a “sobering” choice.

“We have to weigh the desire to express our solidarity with the Armenian people ... against the risk that it could cause young men and women in the uniform of the United States armed services to pay an even heavier price than they are currently paying,” said Lantos, D-Calif.

Lawmakers from both parties who supported the proposal said the moral implications outweighed security concerns and friendship with Turkey.

“The sad truth is that the modern government of Turkey refuses to come to terms with this genocide,” said Rep. Chris Smith, R.-N.J. “For Armenians everywhere, the Turkish government’s denial is a slap in the face.”

Hours before the House Foreign Affairs Committee was to consider the resolution U.S. President George W. Bush voiced his opposition to the move saying it would do “great harm” to ties with key ally Turkey.

“I urge members to oppose the Armenian genocide resolution now being considered by the House Foreign Affairs Committee,” Bush said.

Prior to Bush’s statement, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Wednesday the congressional bid would be “very problematic” for ties with Turkey and for Middle East peace.

In comments echoed by Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Rice also said the House of Representatives resolution would be “very destabilizing for our efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

Speaking after White House talks between the two top officials and President George W. Bush, Rice said she sympathized with the plight of the Armenians under the Ottoman Empire during World War I.

“But the passage of this resolution at this time would, indeed, be very problematic for everything that we’re trying to do in the Middle East because we are very dependent on a good Turkish strategic ally for this,” she said.

Yet with the House’s first order of business Wednesday, Speaker Nancy Pelosi made clear that Turkey’s position was a hard sell. She introduced the Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of all Armenians, Karekin II, to deliver the morning prayer — a daily ritual intended to be apolitical.

“With the solemn burden of history, we remember the victims of the genocide of the Armenians,” Catholicos Karekin II said in the House. “Give peace and justice on their descendants.”

Pelosi spokesman Nadeam Elshami said the timing of Karekin’s visit was a coincidence. Rep. Joe Knollenberg, a Republican, had requested the leader deliver a morning prayer earlier this year. The House chaplain arranged the visit based on Karekin’s schedule and was not aware of the committee’s plans, Elshami said.

Pelosi and the second-ranking Democrat in the House, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, met Wednesday with Turkish Ambassador Nabi Sensoy but emerged from the meeting unswayed. Hoyer told reporters he expects a floor vote on the measure before the House adjourns for the year.

Hoyer said he hoped that Turkey would realize it is not a condemnation of its current government but rather of “another government, at another time.”