I have been half following this situation over the last couple of days and am somewhat puzzled.
There is I think very little doubt that 1 million plus Armenians died during this "genocide" and probably little doubt that it was "genocide" as we currently think of it, I am wondering what this by all accounts "symbolic" resolution was intended to do?
Even if it is the "right" thing to do (when has congress or any governing body been concerned about what is "right"), why now? Surely there are other things the congress and the Foreign Affairs Committee should be doing? What are the motives of the proposers? Are they hoping to disrupt the ability of Bush to pursue the Iraq war or is there something here I don't understand?
Bush and cohorts have opposed the resolution not based on veracity of the event or the "truth" of resolution (in a semantic shift calling the genocide "historic mass killings"), but arguing the strategic interest of the U.S. is threatened (likely true given the apparent need for the involvement of Turkey in the Iraq supply chain).
I am also wondering why Turkey is so sensitive to the issue seemingly in massive denial (to the point that apparently even suggesting that this happening was a "genocide" is a criminal offense in Turkey).
