Narrator: Today the Senate Judiciary Committee will consider a solution that will designate April 24, 1990, a National Day of Remembrance, for the victims of what the resolution terms the Armenian genocide. It would mark the 75th anniversary of the date on which many Armenians said the Turkish government began an organized campaign to eliminate one and a half million Armenians. Although Turkey acknowledges that many Armenians died between 1915 and 1923, it disputes the claim of genocide. Indira Lakshmanan has more. 

Indira Lakshmanan: In 1939, the month before he invaded Poland, Hitler justified his plan with a rhetorical question “Who now remembers the extermination of the Armenians?” Even today, the question of what happened to the Armenians in the last years of the Ottoman empire is both controversial and emotional. While Armenians say that one and a half million of their ancestors were massacred, through a systematic program on the part of the young Turk government, Turks argue that the Armenians who died between 1915 and 1923 were the victims of a civil war within a global war, starvation, and disease. Turks dispute that not only the number of casualties, but the intent to wipe out a race. Now Senate minority leader Robert Dole is sponsoring Legislation that would commemorate the victims of what the resolution calls “The Armenian Genocide.” Similar Legislation has come up in the House before, but never reached a final vote. Senator Dole acknowledges the issue is controversial.

Senator Dole: We have tried to word it in a way we are not trying to offend the Republic of Turkey. Because the genocides perpetrated by the government to the Ottoman empire from 1915 to 1923, but we do not want to embarrass the Turkish government. They are very important to us, and they know they are a very good ally, but we do not see any reason why we should not establish what everybody assumes to be a fact.

Indira Lakshmanan: Turkey has made it clear to attributing to the genocide to a previous government does not diminish the insult to the Turkish people. The Turkish Foreign Minister said publicly last week that if the resolution passes, it will cause irreparable damage to US-Turkish relations. Daryal Batibay is the deputy chief of mission at the Turkish embassy in Washington. 

Daryal Batibay: Turkey and the United States have been good and trusted allies for more than forty years now. We have a strategic interdependence between the two countries and Turkey and United States are also on their way to becoming major economic partners so we have a multi-dimensional relationship which we do not want to upset, by the acceptance of such a resolution which would be on an afront to Turkish people.

Indra Lakshmanan: Turkey borders Iran, Iraq, Syria, Bulgaria, and the Soviet Union. The United States uses ten military bases there which include radar and listening stations that penetrate the Soviet Union. When the Shah of Iran fell, Turkey became even more crucial for the protection and monitoring of the NATO southern flank. The US-Turkish defense and economic cooperation pact is up for renewal next year, and some state department officials worry that US access to bases and intelligence might be at risk, should the resolution pass. But some Western observers in Ankara say the Turkish objections amount to nothing more than saber rattling. They say Turkey is powerless to retaliate, because it needs US aid and NATO’s protection as much or more than the US needs it. Given the uncertain status of US bases in Greece though, the reliability of Turkey becomes all the more important. Congressional sources say trade sanctions are also a possibility. Lobbying on Capitol Hill for and against this resolution has been fierce. The American ambassador to Turkey, Morton Abramowitz is in Washington, and some say he is lobbying against the legislation. And political pressure seems to be getting to some Senators. At least ten have withdrawn their names from the resolution. Some Senators have added themselves though and according to the latest count from Senator Dole’s office, it has more than fifty co-sponsors, the number needed for the resolution to be considered. Senator Pete Wilson of California, home of the largest Armenian constituency in the US, and a candidate for Governor is a leading proponent of the resolution. He is optimistic for both its passage and the future of US-Turkish cooperation.

Pete Wilson: No nation is without some stains upon its history- there are things in our own history of which we are not proud but, we do not go around denying they occurred, and I hope that good sense and self-interest will prevail, because we have not only a history to remember, but a future to be concerned with, but that does not mean we can be false to the memory of the people who perished in that massacre.

Indira Lakshmanan: The resolution is due to be discussed in the Senate Judiciary Committee today. For National Public Radio, I am Indira Lakshmanan in Washington.