Speaking during the Secretary's appearance before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Rohrabacher, a senior Republican with a long track-record championing human rights, explained his support for the resolution, H.Res.106, noting that, "I think I speak for my colleagues here, that this vote was a human rights vote and a recognition of a violation human rights." The panel, with the support of Rohrabacher and the Committee's Chairman, Tom Lantos (D-CA), approved this measure on October 10th by a vote of 27 to 21.
The Secretary responded to the Congressman's concerns, noting that: "I recognize that it was a difficult vote for some who supported the Administration's position on this. There was a reason that we felt very strongly that this resolution should not go forward. This is a very delicate time with Turkey. It is a time when it is going through a major transformation internally." She added, "We have extremely important strategic interests with the Turks," and closed by saying "I continue to believe that the passage of such a resolution as the Armenian Genocide Resolution would severely harm our relationships."
"We can't advance our interests by compromising our values," said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian. "Agreeing to a Turkish government gag-rule on the Armenian Genocide only emboldens other nations to use similar threats to silence America's voice on a whole range of human rights issues."
"The real threat here is to our international moral standing. Any damage to US interests won't come from passing a piece of human rights legislation, but rather from caving in to foreign intimidation, at the cost of our credibility and - in more practical terms - our ability as a nation to shape international public opinion in support of our foreign policy priorities." - Source: Public Radio of Armenia
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