Despite testimony six-to-one in support, Hawaii Rep. Mark Takai had to shelve two House resolutions today that he and Rep. Rida Cabanilla introduced at the behest of the Azerbaijan ambassador.

Dozens of people from around the mainland submitted the same boilerplate statement calling on the Veterans, Military and International Affairs Committee, which Takai chairs, to pass House Resolution 9.

The legislation urges President Obama to strengthen his administration’s efforts to facilitate a political settlement to the decades-old Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. But critics say the language in the reso rewrites the history between the neighboring nations.

Roughly 20 people submitted testimony against the resolution, compared to some 120 for it. There were 256 pages of testimony in all, quite a bit for a mere resolution that doesn’t carry the full weight of a law.

Regardless the interest, a majority of the committee couldn’t get behind it.

The committee deferred HR 9 and House Resolution 13, which recognizes the 22nd anniversary of the Khojaly tragedy. The language in HR 13 drew similar opposition from Armenian-Americans and others who felt it was rewriting history.

Read more about the resolutions in Civil Beat here.

— Nathan Eagle

A map of Armenia. (Narek via Flickr)