A resolution approved by the House Foreign Affairs Committee last week, in recognizing the Armenian Genocide, asks the Obama administration to endorse history at the risk of insulting a needed ally. The passing of House Resolution 252 introduces a new dynamic into the State Department's hopes for "normalization" of relations between Armenia and Turkey.

The Armenian Genocide is marked as beginning April 24, 1915. On the 94th anniversary last year, President Obama decried the "great atrocities" - but defied his own campaign promise by following the precedent of other modern presidents and stopping short of using the word "genocide". [...]