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U.S. congressman calls for recognition of the Armenian Genocide in response to Turkish threats

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U.S. congressman Ted Lieu, member of Democratic Party from California, has called for a resolution to be passed in Senate, recognizing the Armenian genocide in reaction to Turkish threats to U.S. troops in Syria.

“Turkey essentially is telling the United States that we should end our support to Kurdish YPG fighters or risk being targeted by Turkey. In fact, they had some pretty specific remarks, threats to U.S. troops and our policy there,” said, according to local media sources.

“We all understand that the Armenian Genocide happened, it is a historical fact, and the only reason that that resolution has not been passed is that we want to keep our relations with Turkey,” he said, adding “Is it now time to pass that resolution and tell Turkey that look, if you are going to take these actions against us, we are going to tell the truth and do some things you just might not like?”

According to Ahval news site report, the comments came during a Congress sub-committee hearing on the way forward for Syria in which Turkey was heavily criticized for its ongoing operation against the Kurdish-held Syrian enclave of Afrin.

US Congressmen condemn Azerbaijan’s anti-Armenian massacres in Sumgait, Kirovabad and Baku

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WASHINGTON, DC – Azerbaijan’s ongoing aggression against Artsakh and Armenia were condemned last week, during Congressional commemorations of the anti-Armenian pogroms in Sumgait, Kirovabad and Baku, which took place in 1988-1990, reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).

“We join with Representatives Sherman, Schiff, and Pallone in commemorating the anti-Armenian pogroms of a generation ago, knowing, all too sadly, that the very same state-sponsored intolerance that drove Azerbaijan’s violence continues until this day – no longer simply as attacks on defenseless civilians but as all-out military assaults against both Artsakh and Armenia,” said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian.  “We draw from these remembrances added resolve to save the free citizens of the Artsakh Republic from the fate that befell those in Sumgait, Kirovabad, and Baku.”

“I would like to commemorate the Armenian victims of the Sumgait, Kirovabad, and Baku massacres, to honor the memory of the murdered, and to stop future bloodshed,” said Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA), who serves as the Ranking Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific. “If we hope to stop future massacres, we must acknowledge these horrific events and ensure they do not happen again.  We must urge Azerbaijan to cease all threats and acts of coercion against the Republic of Nagorno Karabakh. We should actively monitor and condemn Azerbaijan’s violations of the ceasefire in Nagorno Karabakh.”

Congressional Armenian Caucus Co-Chair Frank Pallone (D-NJ) concurred, noting that “If we do not condemn crimes against humanity and allow them to go unpunished and unrecognized we only strengthen the resolve of those seeking to perpetrate these crimes in the future. The Armenian people have known this for too long, as we prepare to commemorate the 102nd Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide in April.”  Rep. Pallone pledged to “continue to work with my colleagues on the Congressional Armenian Issues Caucus to remember the victims of the pogroms at Sumgait and to condemn all acts of violence against people who are targeted simply because of their existence.”

In a lengthy statement submitted for the Congressional Record, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) reminded his colleagues that “The Sumgait massacre and the subsequent attacks on ethnic Armenians, resulted in the virtual disappearance of a once thriving population of 450,000 Armenians living in Azerbaijan, and culminating in the war launched against the people of Nagorno Karabakh.”  Highlighting Azerbaijan’s ongoing aggression against Artsakh and Armenia, including the April, 2016, attacks that cost hundreds of lives, Rep. Schiff, once again, called for a “direct international response to Azerbaijan’s aggressive behavior through deployment of international monitors and technology to monitor ceasefire violations. Azerbaijan’s continued rejection of these simple steps speaks volumes, but I believe they should not prevent the installation of these technologies within Nagorno Karabakh. The anniversary of Sumgait is a reminder of the consequences when aggression and hatred is allowed to grow unchecked.”

After Azerbaijan case, experts started studying trips of U.S. Congressman to Turkey

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(Photo By Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)

Lujan Grisham and a companion stayed at a five-star palace-turned-hotel in Istanbul. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call File Photo)

Following the scandalous trip of U.S. Congressmen to Azerbaijan, details on Congressmen’s trips to Turkey have appeared in media.

In total, Capitol Hill lawmakers and staff made 159 privately sponsored trips to Turkey during the 113th Congress. But a recent report suggests hidden sources which footed the bill for five-star hotels and luxurious restaurants, http://blogs.rollcall.com/ reports.

The trips were funded by different organizations which admitted they used the Bosphorus Atlantic Cultural Association of Friendship and Cooperation (BAKIAD) to arrange and finance the trips. But BAKIAD’s involvement was not disclosed in any of the documents submitted to the House Ethics Committee.

While lobbyists and lobbying firms are prohibited from financing trips, they can be paid by non-profit organizations, who must not reveal their sources.

But, according to the experts, the case of Azerbaijan became “a roadmap about how to evade the limits in the law for who can pay for travel.”  The experts think the Congress needs to carefully review how nonprofit sponsors plan to pay for overseas journeys.

U.S. Congressman talks about Genocide with Turkish leadership

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May 14, 2014 – 11:59 AMT

As part of a Congressional Delegation to the Middle East and Asia focused on terrorism, homeland security and the war in Syria, Representative Adam Schiff (D-CA) had separate meetings with Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, President 178857Abdullah Gul and other high-ranking government officials.

In his meeting with the Prime Minister, Schiff challenged the notion expressed by Erdogan in a recent interview that because there are Armenian survivors still living in Turkey, there could have been no genocide. This is the equivalent, Schiff argued, of saying that because some Jews in Europe escaped death, there was no Holocaust.

Schiff also questioned whether it was possible to have the open discourse in Turkey about the events of 1915-1923 that Erdogan called for in his statement of April 23, if Turkish professors, historians, journalists and ordinary citizens still faced demotion, intimidation, potential prosecution or violence for expressing the conviction that the Armenian Genocide is a historic fact.

In his meeting with President Gul, Schiff said that he wanted to speak for the many tens of thousands of his constituents of Armenian descent who may never get the chance to address the President directly.

“You will not find one of my 80,000 Armenian constituents untouched by the Genocide,” he said. “Each of them has lost a parent or grandparent, their cousins, brothers or sisters, or their entire family. Their pain is real, their wounds are open, this is no distant relic of the past. To say, as you and the Prime Minister have, that yes, Armenians suffered but so too did Turks during World War I, is akin to saying that the Germans also suffered during World War II. It is true that many German civilians died, many noncombatants, but that does not negate the Holocaust any more than the fact that many Turks died could negate the Genocide. To propose, as you have, that a historic commission be established to ascertain the facts of the Genocide is not unlike suggesting that a commission needs to be established to determine whether the Holocaust took place.”

Schiff also raised the issue of Kessab, and his concern over the forced evacuation of the historic Armenian community there and the wellbeing of those residents who are now refugees in Turkey.

Photo: Getty Images