[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 19]
[House]
[Page 26946]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 OPPOSING ARMENIAN GENOCIDE RESOLUTION

  (Mr. WHITFIELD asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Mr. WHITFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to oppose a nonbinding 
resolution that will have serious negative consequences to our national 
security.
  H. Res. 106, the Armenian Genocide resolution, is a dangerously 
short-sighted and controversial resolution that is being marked up in 
the Foreign Affairs Committee today. This resolution will jeopardize 
our relationship with a strong NATO ally, Turkey, and hinder our 
ability to combat the global war on terror. This resolution makes 
assertions about facts that historians to this date still debate.
  I might add that every living former Secretary of State, both 
Democrat and Republican, recently sent a letter to the Speaker stating 
that passage of this resolution would ``strain our relations with 
Turkey, endanger our national security interests, including the safety 
of our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.''
  I would also point out that in today's Washington Post in an 
editorial, it said that ``passage of the Armenian Genocide resolution 
would be dangerous and grossly irresponsible.'' I hope the Foreign 
Affairs Committee today will reject this resolution.

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