FACTBOX-The Armenian issue in the United States

(Reuters) - Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, says she intends to press ahead with a resolution calling the 1915 massacre of Armenians by Ottoman Turks genocide, despite White House concerns it will damage relations with Turkey, a key NATO ally.

On October 10, the House Foreign Relations Committee approved a resolution branding the massacre of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians from 1915 to 1923 as genocide. The full House is expected to vote on the non-binding resolution sometime this autumn.

Following are some facts about the issue in the United States:

* Similar resolutions have been introduced in the House for years, with Armenian-American groups pressing for passage. The resolutions have sometimes passed committees, but when Republicans ran Congress they blocked a floor vote, saying they did not want to embarrass Turkey.

* The resolution recognizing the 1915 mass killings of Armenians by Turks as genocide was introduced in the House by Rep. Adam Schiff, a California Democrat who has a large number of Armenian-Americans in his district. The resolution has 218 co-sponsors, about half of the House.

* The late Ronald Reagan, a Californian, was the only U.S. president to publicly call the killings of Armenians genocide. Other presidents have avoided the term out of concern for Turkey's sensitivities.

* There are an estimated 1.5 million to 2 million Americans with Armenian heritage and many grew up hearing horrific stories of the massacres. Nowhere is Armenian influence more visible than in Glendale, California, a city of 200,000 near Los Angeles where 40 percent of the population is Armenian.

* One of the Bush administration's fears is that the resolution could weaken U.S. influence as it urges Turkey to refrain from a major military operation against Kurdish rebels based in northern Iraq. Washington also relies on Turkey as a logistics hub to supply its troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.