NorthJersey.com -- At the nursing home in Emerson, residents play bingo and cards. They speak proudly of their grandchildren and great grandchildren. But two things set this nursing home apart — the pain of the killing of their relatives, and more than a million of their countrymen, during World War I by Ottoman Turks and the frustration over the U.S. government's failure to condemn it as genocide.

Like many Armenian-Americans, the residents and officers of the Armenian Nursing and Rehabilitation Center praise the recent passage by a congressional committee of a non-binding resolution recognizing the killings as genocide.

But the Obama administration — under pressure from Turkey — is trying to keep the resolution from a full vote in the House of Representatives, and the nursing home's residents and officers said they fear that, once again, they'll see the U.S. government miss an opportunity to condemn the killings as genocide.

"My grandmother always wore black because of the genocide," said Agnes Kazanjian, who lived in Harrington Park until she became a resident of the nursing home. "My father's sister found out the Turks were on their way to where she was and she committed suicide. What do I think will happen next? Obama is saying 'no.' "

The Rev. Berj Gulleyan of the Armenian Presbyterian Church in Paramus says most of his congregants have been touched, in one way or another, by the mass killings. His congregants have included survivors, or the descendants of survivors. He is a vocal supporter of the killings being recognized by the United States, and the international community, as genocide.

"We need to be the voice of the voiceless," Gulleyan said. "If the United States can't be that, we've lost something very special that this country is known and respected for."

Scholars from around the world believe that some 1.5 million Armenians died at the hands of Ottoman Turks during World War I.

Those scholars, as well as many Armenians worldwide, say the deaths were orchestrated by the Turks in pursuit of ethnic cleansing. They say Armenians were forced to march to the Syrian desert without food or water, and many — men, women and children — perished along the way.

Turkey long has denied that the deaths resulted from a genocide, and say they were casualties of a civil conflict as the Ottoman Empire collapsed.

"The Turkish empire did not deport or plan to kill Armenians," said Faruk Acar, a past vice president of the Federation of Turkish American Associations in New York. (Turkish groups in North Jersey either referred questions to Acar or could not be reached.) "They were at war, on the side of the Russian Army, against the Ottoman Empire. We tried to protect ourselves. Turkish people also got killed. That's the reality. What the Armenians say is propaganda."

Turkey recalled its envoy from Washington, D.C., following the resolution vote in the House of Representatives' Committee on Foreign Affairs. Turkish officials warned that the vote would hurt relations between the United States and Turkey, as well as current diplomatic talks between Turkey and Armenia.

"The resolution is ridiculous, it's purely political," said Acar, who lives in New York. "U.S. congressmen and senators make decisions on their political future, they're selfish. The Turkish people are very proud of our history."

At the nursing home, which now also has non-Armenian residents, several Armenians said their parents had been left orphaned by the mass deaths during World War I.

The board vice president, Vatche Baghdikian, said the denial by the Turks is hurtful.

"We are Christians, so we want to forgive," he said, his eyes filling with tears. "But how do you forgive someone who will not admit what happened? There was no civil war, people were just sitting in their homes, they were at church, when they were dragged out and killed. We want closure, we want to put this in the history record."

Rep. Frank Pallone Jr., D-Monmouth, has another view. "Turkey is in denial," said the sponsor of the House resolution and co-chairman of the Congressional Caucus on Armenian Issues.

Pallone said that it would be difficult to get the resolution put up for a vote before the full House with President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton lobbying against it but vowed to try to muster the support to make it happen.

"To this day, Turkey continues to deny the Armenian genocide and its own history," Pallone wrote in a statement.

"Mistreatment of the Armenians by the Turks is not a matter of a distant and forgotten past. With world events as a reminder, history lives with us."

Pallone said that the Bush and Clinton administrations also quashed efforts to bring House committee resolutions for a full vote on the House floor.