WASHINGTON
A U.S. lawmaker has asked President Barack Obama to set up a committee to improve and enhance Turkish-Armenian relations.
"Turkey and Armenia are very important to the American interests," congressman Curt Clawson wrote in a letter to House colleagues in an attempt to garner support for his resolution that seeks to find reconciliation between the two states. "U.S interests (in the region) can be advanced by both countries acting to cultivate peace and understanding."
Turkish-Armenian relations have long been marked by strong tensions due to the events of 1915, when a certain number of Armenians were relocated by the Ottoman Empire for supporting the Russian invasion of Anatolia during World War I.
Clawson called on Obama "to designate a task force comprised of members of Congress, administration officials and representatives from Turkey and Armenia charged with working toward equitable, constructive, stable and durable relations."
"This is the first time that we see a draft bill of that kind in the Congress," said Derya Taskin, president of the New York-based Turkish Institute for Progress.
She said she supports Clawson’s "historical," bill and pointed out that the Turkish Institute for Progress is also working to help resolve Turkish-Armenian relations.
Several congressional committees have passed resolutions that accuse Turkey of “genocide” during the 1915 events.
The Armenian diaspora in U.S. has at times been influential in getting lawmakers to issue some of those resolutions.
The Turkish government has repeatedly called on historians to study Ottoman archives pertaining to the era in order to uncover what actually happened between the Ottoman government and its Armenian citizens.
The debate on “genocide” and the differing opinions between the present day Turkish government and the Armenian diaspora, along with the current administration in Yerevan, still generates political tension between Turks and Armenians.
Turkey's official position against the “genocide” allegations is that they acknowledge that the past experiences were a great tragedy and that both parties suffered heavy casualties, including hundreds of Muslim Turks. Turkey agrees that there were certainly Armenian casualties during World War I, but that it is impossible to define these incidents as “genocide.”
