YEREVAN (Yerevan Report Staff), March 5–On March 4, the Foreign Affairs Committee of the US House of Representatives voted to condemn the mass killings of Armenians in 1915 as genocide.

The vote was won by a hair of a majority– 23-22. Despite the condemnation, which was a repeat of a 2007 passage, it is unclear whether the resolution will make it to the House of Representatives for vote.

Two years ago a similar initiative was shot down at the last minute by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi despite assurances that the resolution would reach the house floor. Similar abrupt actions have been taken in the past just moments before a scheduled vote as a result of strong pressure placed by Turkish lobbying groups on congressional leaders.

Turkey was quick to react. In a statement released to the press Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, “We condemn this bill that denounces the Turkish nation of a crime that it has not committed.” The Turkish Ambassador to the US, Namik Tan, has already been recalled to Ankara as was threatened by Turkish authorities before the vote.

Ankara has been insinuating that the resolution’s passage would damage the already fragile Turkish-Armenian reconciliation efforts. In January the Armenian Constitution Court decided that the Turkish-Armenian protocols for the establishment of diplomatic relations were valid but stipulated that future initiatives for international Armenian Genocide recognition could not be compromised, angering Ankara.

Both Prime Minister Erdogan and Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu have been insisting in recent months that a final resolution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict be made in Azerbaijan’s favor before Turkey agrees to open its shared border with Armenia, much to Yerevan’s chagrin.

Prime Minister Erdogan has repeatedly denied the occurrence of genocide in public statements. In a December 2009 interview with journalist Charlie Rose he said, “I can say very clearly that we do not accept genocide. This is completely a lie.”

Turkey has been a valuable ally of the US in its war being fought in Afganistan and Iraq. The military base in Incirlik has been serving as a launching pad for US military operations.

Ankara has repeatedly threatened to nullify business contracts for purchasing US-manufactured military equipment. In 2009 alone Turkey spent $7 billion on arms purchases from the US. Turkey has also invested heavily in the development of the F-35 fighter jet, which has cost $300 billion, and intends to purchase several.

Nevertheless, the House Panel did not heed the pleas of the US aerospace and defense industry to vote against the resolution. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was similarly unsuccessful in her efforts for convincing the committee chairman to stop the vote.

“The Turks say passing this resolution could have terrible consequences for our bilateral relationship, but I believe that Turkey values its relations with the United States at least as much as we value our relations with Turkey,” committee chairman Rep. Howard L. Berman (CA) said.

“Nothing justifies Turkey’s turning a blind eye to the reality of the Armenian Genocide,” he said.

Armenian lobbying groups in Washington lauded the positive results of the vote.

“It was closer than anticipated, but at the end of the day the truth prevailed and the members made a very affirmative statement in the face of the opposition,” executive director of the Armenian Assembly of America Bryan Ardouny said.

“A moral foreign policy has always been among our strongest assets and one of the greatest forces for good in the world,” ANCA chairman Ken Hachikian said in a statement.

“Despite Turkey’s last minute threats and intimidation, Chairman Berman and the House Foreign Affairs Committee have shown that it’s always the right time to do the right thing,” he said.