The expediencies of local campaign politics in the United States is threatening to upend Turkey s close ties with Washington. The fulcrum of bilateral tension is a proposed resolution, now awaiting consideration by the full US House of Representatives, that labels the suffering of Armenians during the last years of the Ottoman Turkish empire as genocide. The House Committee on International Relations approved the resolution on October 3, sending the measure to the full House, which could vote on the resolution as soon as this week. Rep. James Rogan, a California Republican, is one of the resolution s major backers. While similar congressional resolutions have been unsuccessful in the past, a tight election race in Rogan s Southern California electoral district, which is home to one of the largest concentrations of Armenian-Americans in the United States, has boosted support for the proposal in Congress.
Turkey strongly denies the genocide charge.
Turkish officials do not dispute that widespread death and suffering occurred among Christian Armenians beginning in April 1915, but they add that, amid the prevalent violence of World War I, hundreds of thousands of Turks and Muslims suffered similar fates during the same period and in the same area. Turkey also argues that there is no proof of an orchestrated campaign of genocide against the Armenian citizens of the Ottoman Empire. Developments in the US Congress have provoked collective outrage from both Turkish policymakers and the general public. Last week, in a move that sent shock waves through Washington, Turkey raised its diplomatic representation in Baghdad to ambassadorship, in spite of the long-standing U.S. policy to isolate the regime in Baghdad ostensibly in retaliation to the House decision. Still more is to come, according to Turkish government sources.