Proposed Bill Calls for Reconciliation Between Turkey and Armenia

Bringing a new approach to a long-running Capitol Hill standoff, a Turkish-American coalition is pushing a new bill in Congress that will call for reconciliation and dialogue between Turkey and Armenia while sidestepping the question of whether the 1915 mass killing of Armenians at the hands of the Ottoman Empire was genocide. WSJ reporst.

Armenian and Armenian-American advocacy groups have long pressed the U.S. government to officially call the killings genocide, while the Turks have fought hard against such proposals in the U.S. and abroad. The issue has been debated in Congress for years, without a resolution, and the new bill may run into similar difficulties.

The new proposal, to be introduced by Rep. Curt Clawson (R., Fla.), will call on President Barack Obama to “work toward equitable, constructive, stable, and durable Armenian-Turkish relations” by establishing a new presidential task force aimed at rapprochement.

This year marks the 100th year anniversary of the massacres—giving advocates and lobbyists renewed ammunition in the battle between the two countries over how the mass killings are remembered and commemorated by historians and governments.

The historical consensus is that as many as 1.5 million Armenians were killed by the Ottoman Empire in what is now Turkey. Turkey says the issue of whether the killings were genocide isn’t for modern-day governments to decide, contests the number of deaths and argues those killed were casualties of a larger armed conflict.

The bill, which is being pushed by a new advocacy group called the Turkish Institute for Progress, aims to be a counterweight and a potential alternative to another controversial piece of legislation that would call the 1915 killings a genocide. The proposal has existed in some form for years.

The Turkish-American coalition has retained the lobbying firm Levick Strategic Communications to push the reconciliation proposal as a possible alternative to the genocide bill.

“What we’ve seen year after year for over a decade is Armenia focused on a resolution that is divisive and causes rancor,” said Connie Mack, a former Republican member of Congress and a lobbyist for Levick.

This new effort is “about moving forward. It’s about the next 100 years,” said Mr. Mack. The institute isn’t lobbying for or against the separate genocide resolution and doesn’t have an official position on it. The rapprochement bill and the genocide bill aren’t mutually exclusive and members could, in theory, sponsor both, he said.

The reconciliation proposal is already drawing a furious reaction from Armenian-American groups, who are a powerful and well-organized lobbying force across the country.

“Congressman Clawson’s measure is Orwellian. He strips out any mention of the Armenian genocide from a resolution that deals with Turkish-Armenian relations — which is both unprincipled and impractical,” said Aram Hamparian, the executive director Armenian National Committee of America. “The genocide issue stands at the very center of Turkish-Armenian relations.”

“U.S. interests can be advanced by both countries acting to cultivate peace and understanding,” said Mr. Clawson, the bill’s sponsor, in a letter to fellow members of Congress seeking support.

Rep. Adam Schiff, a California Democrat and one of the most vocal members of Congress on the issue, likened the proposal for a reconciliation commission to setting up a presidential panel to debate whether the Holocaust occurred.

“That might be something that Holocaust deniers would applaud, but it suggests that there’s a credible case to be made that the Holocaust didn’t happen. There is no credible case that to be made that the Holocaust didn’t happen and there’s no credible case to be made that the Armenian genocide didn’t happen,” Mr. Schiff said.

Mr. Schiff and a bipartisan slate of lawmakers reintroduced their genocide resolution last month with about 40 sponsors. That is down sharply from the more than 200 lawmakers who signed on to the bill in 2007.

In 2007, with Democrats in control of Congress, the genocide bill cleared the House Foreign Affairs Committee before falling victim to a lobbying campaign by both Turkey and the George W. Bush administration. The Bush administration and lawmakers of both parties at the time feared the diplomatic repercussions of alienating Turkey, a strategic U.S. ally in the Middle East.

Those concerns persist today about the proposal labeling the massacres a genocide.

“Undertaking this course of action would not only be morally shortsighted but it would alienate one of our last allies in the region who is working hand-in-hand with U.S. soldiers and our allies to combat ISIS and give refuge to hundreds of thousands of innocent refugees from the Syrian Civil War,” wrote Rep. Bill Shuster in a letter to colleagues this year.

The Turkish Institute for Progress was formed earlier this year. The Institute says it has no connection to the Turkish government and its lobbyists at Levick aren’t registered under provisions governing representatives of foreign governments.

“TIP is currently supported by a number of American businesses and independent donors seeking a more progressive solution to mend Armenian and Turkish relations,” Derya Taskin, the group’s president, said in a statement. The group declined to name the business or donors supporting it, citing fear of retaliation.

The Turkish government—which couldn’t not be reached for comment through the embassy—has a number of prominent Washington lobbyists on its payroll. The country has the firms of both former Democratic House Majority Leader Dick Gephardt and former Republican House Speaker Dennis Hastert on retainer. Turkey last month re-signed another $1.7 million contract with Mr. Gephardt’s firm.

The White House declined to take a position on legislation that is still being drafted and has yet to be officially introduced.

As a candidate, Mr. Obama promised to use the word “genocide” as president to describe the mass killings and said the evidence was “undeniable.” But since he took office, he’s avoided the term, calling the events “atrocities.”