Congressmen united over new resolution on Armenian Genocide to possibly succeed this time: Giro Manoyan

Armenian Revolutionary Federation-Dashnaktsutiun hails the initiative of the American congressmen to join Adam Schiff and Gus Bilirakis and submit new resolution about the Armenian Genocide, head of the ARF-D Bureau Armenian Cause and Political Affairs Office Giro Manoyan told Aysor.am.

He said this time the support to the initiative will be quite big. More than 70 congressmen have joined the initiative.

“The majority in the U.S. Congress are democrats though this initiative belongs to both parties, and among the 70 congressmen there are republicans too. This time the possibility of success is higher than for instance during the previous Congress,” Manoyan said.

At the same time he reminded the precedent when having a big number of signatures of the U.S. congressmen, speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi did not put the decision for voting.

“Theoretically it is not excluded that the same be done this time as well. Of course that time the U.S. president was democrat and that was the reason. In any case I think that this time the possibility is bigger,” Manoyan stated.

Giro Manoyan noted that the Armenian Genocide issue is considered to be USA’s foreign policy issue and the foreign policy in U.S. states may be considered president’s monopoly.

“House of Representatives has several times adopted resolution and one of the ex- presidents of the USA, Ronald Reagan, has uttered Armenian genocide phrase. The fact that 49 out of 50 U.S. states have recognized the Armenian genocide is more political than legal step which may have an impact on domestic stance,” Manoyan said.

In any case, nothing should be excluded in case of Donald Trump, but it is necessary to remember that the issue of recognition of the Armenian genocide more depends on the executive power.

“During these days the congressmen will apply to the U.S. president for him to use term Armenian genocide in his April 24 speech,” Manoyan said.

He drew the attention on the circumstance that the U.S. presidents more use Meds Yeghern phrase to avoid Armenian Genocide term.

“We too say Meds Yeghern, but when someone, be it U.S. president or any other, says Meds Yeghern just not to utter the phrase Armenian Genocide, it is already offensive. Meds Yeghern is not a wrong term if not being uttered to avoid the term Armenian genocide,” Giro Manoyan said, adding that if this year too the U.S. president fails to say Armenian genocide, it does not mean that the Armenian-American lobby must be discouraged. It is necessary to remember that recognition of the Armenian genocide by 49 out of 50 states is not work of one day but the result of lasting work.