The US House will vote on a resolution in committee on March 4 recognizing World War I-era killings of Christian Armenians by Muslim Turks as "genocide," according to sources on Capitol Hill.

Pamela Geller from the libertarian/human rights blog Atlas Shrugs gives some background, "Muslim Congressman Ellison won't call Armenian Genocide" Feb. 26:

It was the genocide that preceded the Holocaust. The Mufti of Jerusalem practiced genocide first in the Armenian genocide -- the systematic genocide of the Armenian population under the Islamic Ottoman Empire during and just after World War I. The use of massacres and deportations involving forced marches under conditions designed to lead to the death of the deportees led to a total number of Armenian deaths of one-and-a-half to two million. Mufti Amin Al-Husseini swore allegiance to the Ottoman Empire during the Armenian genocide [i] . [ii] He was an officer stationed in Smyrna and participates first-hand in the Armenian genocide. One and a half million Christians were slaughtered under the sword of Islamic Jihad by the Ottoman Army. Allegiance to Ottoman Empire and Islamic world take-over was echoed by Osama Bin Laden in his post-September 11 declaration. Osama Bin Laden makes direct reference to the end of Ottoman Empire and thus proclaims his allegiance to its notion of Islamic dominion.

Now from the (Turkish) Hurayet, Feb. 19:

A resolution calling for U.S. recognition of World War I-era killings of Armenians as “genocide” will likely be endorsed in an early March vote in a U.S. congressional committee, according to analysis of domestic politics.

The non-binding resolution would call on President Barack Obama to ensure that U.S. policy formally refers to the Armenian killings as “genocide” and to use that term when he delivers his annual message on the issue in April – something Obama avoided doing last year...

This time the measure is expected to pass. In 2007, it failed due to opposition from some Republican concerned with relations with then Iraq War ally Turkey.

Continuing:

amid the political fight between the Democratic Obama administration and the Republicans, some Republicans on the committee might be tempted to vote for the “genocide” measure.

Ironically, Rep. John Murtha's death seems to have given the Armenian lobby renewed optimisim. Democrat Murtha was the leading proponent in Congress for Turkey, and against the resolution.

There's some controversy over how the only Congressman Keith Ellison of Minnesota will vote. He is the only Muslim in Congress. He happens to sit on the House Foreign Relations Committee. He recently said, "I am still developing my position..."