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RESOLUTION 106 TO BE CONSIDERED THIS WEEK

Politics

Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi intends to move ahead with a vote on a resolution that labels the deaths of more than a million Armenians during World War I as genocide.

"This resolution is one that is consistent with what our government has always said about ... what happened at that time," Pelosi said on ABC's "This Week."

When asked about criticism that it could harm relations with Turkey - a key ally in the war in Iraq and a fellow member of NATO - Pelosi said, "There's never been a good time," adding that it is important to pass the resolution now "because many of the survivors are very old."

"When I came to Congress 20 years ago, it wasn't the right time because of the Soviet Union. Then that fell, and then it wasn't the right time because of the Gulf War One. And then it wasn't the right time because of overflights of Iraq. And now it's not the right time because of Gulf War Two.

"And, again, the survivors of the Armenian genocide are not going to be with us."

Let us remind that the House Foreign Affairs Committee voted 27-21 Wednesday to approve the nonbinding measure, which declares the deportation of nearly 2 million Armenians from the Ottoman Empire between 1915 and 1923 was "systematic" and "deliberate," amounting to "genocide." The deportations led to the deaths of an estimated 1.5 million people.

But Sunday, Pelosi stood by her previous assertion that the measure would be taken to a full vote if it passed the committee.