But the opposition couldn’t overcome a well-organized and emotional push by Armenian-American groups to get the U.S. government to acknowledge the slaughter of 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Empire, the precursor to modern Turkey. (Turkish officials call it a “tragedy,” not a “genocide.”) When California Democratic Rep. Jane Harman, a cosponsor of the resolution, suggested it was “the wrong time” for a vote, she was confronted by protesters in her district chanting, “Hypocrite, liar, genocide denier!”
The Armenian push was also boosted by campaign contributions: Annie Totah, co-chair of the Armenian American Political Action Committee, told NEWSWEEK she has raised “hundreds of thousands of dollars” for Democratic candidates and recently joined Hillary Clinton’s finance committee. (Clinton is a cosponsor of the resolution in the Senate.) Totah, for her part, believes Turkey is overreacting. “They should stop acting like this is World War III,” she said. But Turkish officials are unlikely to be mollified, especially if House Speaker Nancy Pelosi follows through on a pledge to bring the measure to the House floor. If that happens, Turkey is likely to retaliate, says Egeman Bagis, a top adviser to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. How? By sending troops, over U.S. objections, into northern Iraq to crack down on Kurdish rebels. “You can’t insult an entire nation like this,” he said.
