Transcript [PDF] - House Foreign Affairs Committee Democrats

14
I urge my colleagues to support this resolution, and I now turn
to the ranking member, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, for her statement.
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman. The
death of 1.5 million Armenians at the hands of officials of the Ottoman
Empire almost a century ago was a dark and horrific chapter
in human rights, one which has had an enduring impact on the
psyche of subsequent generations of Armenians. It continues to significantly
influence the relations between the current nation states
of Armenian and Turkey and thereby impacts attempts at reconciliation
between the two countries.
This is also an extremely sensitive time for U.S. efforts in both
Europe and the Middle East, and we need to ensure that our decisions
and our actions concerning the resolution before us do not
have unintended consequences that could place at risk critical U.S.
security interests, our operations in Afghanistan and Iraq and our
troops serving in harm’s way.
Without question, this is an extremely serious matter that requires
careful consideration. Unfortunately, we are at a disadvantage
today. The current administration, in contrast to the Bush and
Clinton administrations, has chosen not to engage in any way prior
to today’s markup and has not yet decided if it will at all at some
later point. Despite various congressional requests, it has not submitted
any views or provided any recent documentation that could
assist us in our committee in arriving at the decision before us on
House Resolution 252.
As such, some of us have reviewed information provided by the
Department of Defense in 2007 and the intelligence community in
2009 in an effort to gain a more complete understanding of the different
foreign policy priorities and important security interests at
stake. Our colleague, Mr. McCaul, has reviewed those documents.
He has constituents serving in Iraq and Afghanistan and wanted
to ensure that he fully understood the potential ramifications for
their safety and the safety of all of our personnel engaging the
enemy in these countries.
The information contained in these documents had a profound
impact on the way that he views today’s markup of House Resolution
252 and what it could mean for our military operations. More
broadly, as a number of our colleagues, including Chairman Ike
Skelton of the Armed Forces Committee, cautioned in a letter to
Chairman Berman and me earlier this week, and I quote:
‘‘This legislation will have very real and meaningful consequences
internationally. While we can and should debate the
best ways to defeat extremism and help strengthen our struggling
economy, we certainly should not be considering proposals
that will only further damage our country both militarily
and economically.’’
Lastly, I would suggest that it does not help nor advance our nation’s
interest for the members of this committee to engage in a titfor-tat
to disparage either the Armenian or the Turkish Government.
To ensure that members have ample opportunity to express
their support and raise concerns about this measure, Mr. Chairman,
I will yield back my time. Thank you.
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