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By Jessica Wehrman, Staff Writer 11:06 PM Sunday, August 9, 2009

WASHINGTON — A bloody 1915 conflict has sparked political warfare in the 2nd congressional district, where U.S. Rep. Jean Schmidt and Democrat David Krikorian are sparring about a flier Krikorian distributed during the tail end of the 2008 political campaign.

The flier accused Schmidt, a member of the Turkish-American Relations Caucus, of taking money from the Turkish government and Turkish interests in exchange for her opposition to a congressional resolution declaring the 1915 conflict between the two a genocide. Krikorian, an Armenian-American whose own grandparents narrowly escaped the bloodshed, supports the resolution. Earlier this year, Schmidt quietly filed a complaint with the Ohio Elections Commission, arguing that the flier was based on false statements.

A trial is set for Sept. 3. Schmidt’s camp must prove that Krikorian’s statements were false and that he knew they were false.

Krikorian argues that two political action committees that Schmidt’s campaign has received money from – the Turkish American Heritage PAC and Turkish Coalition USA – receive money directly from Turkish interests. The PACs describe themselves instead as PACs honoring Turkish heritage.

Schmidt’s camp has hired a high-powered Washington, D.C. attorney, Bruce Fein. Krikorian has his own: Mark Geragos, an Armenian-American who has defended celebrities including Michael Jackson and Winona Ryder.

For his part, Krikorian defends the fliers as a freedom of speech issue, plain and simple. He doesn’t back away from his flier’s claim that Schmidt accepted “ blood money” to deny a genocide.

“There are no Turkish people who live in the second district,” he said. “Why is this woman doing this? She does this for the money.”

But Bruce Pfaff, a spokesman for Schmidt said the issue isn’t one of where one stands on Turkish-Armenian relations, but rather, one of truth versus lies, and what part lies should play in a campaign. Schmidt, he said, did not take money from Turkish interests in exchange for her opposition to the resolution. “She obviously believes atrocities were committed,” he said, adding that she doesn’t necessarily believe the bloodshed was planned by the government, as international law demands it to be to be deemed a genocide.

Krikorian, who ran as an independent in 2008, said the issue is about something bigger.

“This has to do with one of the absolute biggest issues we have in our country – the flow of money from special interest organizations to congressmen and senators in exchange for doing their bidding,” he said.

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