Recognize genocide, scholars urge Congress

Some of the world's leading genocide scholars are urging Congress to formally declare the massacres of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey after World War I a genocide.

In a letter to the leaders of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, which will vote next week on a resolution recognizing the genoicde, members of the International Association of Genocide Scholars said this morning that passing the bill would be "affirming the truth about a genocide that has been overwhelmingly established by decades of documentation and scholarship."

The bill by Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Pasadena, passed the committee last year but the then-Republican leadership blocked it from coming to the House floor. But Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has pledged her committment to the resolution, and supporters said they hope to see it come to a vote this year.