By Adonia Agayan

YEREVAN, July 30 — The subject of the congressional hearing held on July 28 at the US House Committee on Foreign Affairs was Turkey’s New Foreign Policy Direction and Implications for US-Turkish Relations.

The discussion participants also referred to the issue of the Armenian Genocide and the settlement of Armenian–Turkish relations.

In his statement Democrat Howard Berman, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, noted that it is critical that Turkey acknowledges the genocide committed against the Armenian people in Ottoman Empire during World War I.

He said that from time to time the House Foreign Affairs Committee was taking measures aimed at the recognition of the Armenian Genocide and has appealed to President Barack Obama as well.

“I believe that Turks, once they come to terms with their past, will discover that they have relieved themselves and their children of an immense moral burden,” Berman said.

Earlier this year, Chairman Berman was instrumental in the committee passage of H. Res. 252, the Armenian Genocide Resolution.

Congressman Jim Costa said that there is a large amount of facts concerning the Armenian Genocide. He pointed out the overwhelming evidence of the Armenian Genocide, and also raised the topic of Armenia-Turkey rapprochement and the protocols signed between the two countries in 2009.

“We commend Chairman Berman’s ongoing leadership regarding the need to unequivocally affirm the Armenian Genocide,” stated the Assembly’s Grassroots Director Taniel Koushakjian. “As the House of Representatives looks to its August district work period, this hearing provides a timely review of important issues and lends new impetus on the need for Congress to adopt the Armenian Genocide resolution,” added Koushakjian.

At the hearing Congressman Christopher Smith, in a series of questions, recalled the words of philosopher George Santayana, who stated “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

Congressman Smith raised concerns about Turkey’s denial of the Armenian Genocide, the denial of the genocide in Darfur coupled with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s defense of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who has been indicted on charges of genocide by the International Criminal Court (ICC). Based on a 2009 interview of Erdogan who stated, “No Muslim could perpetrate a genocide.”

Yerevan Report