IN US, ARMENIAN FM LOBBIES FOR PASSAGE OF ‘GENOCIDE’ RESOLUTION
The New Anatolian, Turkey
March 7 2007
Armenia’s foreign minister Monday voiced worries about a high-level
Turkish push against a proposed congressional resolution to recognize a
"genocide" of Armenians alleged to have happened at the end of World
War I.
Vartan Oskanian, in Washington on Monday for meetings with Secretary
of State Condoleezza Rice and members of Congress on wide-ranging
topics that included the proposed "genocide" resolution, said in
an interview that Armenia feels compelled to discuss the resolution
because of public warnings by Turkey against its passage.
"Governments should stay away from meddling in these matters," Oskanian
told The Associated Press. "But when topics of interest for Armenia
are being discussed, we cannot remain as a government indifferent,
particularly in light of Turkish lobbying at a government level."
The comments follow recent visits to Washington by top Turkish
officials including Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, who warned last
month that the resolution, if passed, would harm Turkish-American
relations.
The measure, which claims that 1.5 million Armenians were killed almost
a century ago in what it describes as "genocide," is likely to draw
protests from Turkey. The Bush administration has warned that even
congressional debate on the genocide question could damage relations
with a vital Muslim ally and member of NATO.
In Washington, Armenian-American groups have been pressing for years
for a resolution on the genocide issue. The House of Representatives’
International Relations Committee last year endorsed two resolutions
classifying the killings as genocide. But the House leadership,
controlled by Bush’s Republican Party, prevented a vote by the full
chamber.
The genocide claim was the key issue as the Senate considered the
ambassadorial nomination of Hoagland to replace John Evans, who
reportedly had his tour of duty cut short because, in a social setting,
he referred to the killings as genocide. Senator Robert Menendez, a
New Jersey Democrat, blocked the nomination over Hoagland’s refusal
to use the word genocide at his confirmation hearing in June. With
Democrats taking over the Senate, it will be even more difficult now
for the Bush administration to circumvent Menendez’s objections.
Turkey strongly opposes the claims that its predecessor state, the
Ottoman government, caused the Armenian deaths in a planned genocide.
The Turkish government has said the toll is wildly inflated and that
Armenians were killed or displaced in civil unrest during the empire’s
collapse and conditions of World War I. Ankara’s proposal to Yerevan
to set up a joint commission of historians to study the disputed
events is still awaiting a positive response from the Armenian side.
After French lawmakers voted last October to make it a crime to deny
that the claims were a genocide, Turkey said it would suspend military
relations with France.
Turkey provides vital support to U.S. military operations. Incirlik
Air Force Base, a major base in southern Turkey, has been used by
the U.S. to launch operations into Iraq and Afghanistan and was a
center for U.S. fighters that enforced the "no-fly zones" which kept
the Iraqi air force bottled up after the 1991 Gulf War.
Oskanian said that the Turkish warnings were an attempt to silence
critics of Turkey’s position on genocide abroad as it has domestically
through its penal code.
"Now Turks are traveling to punish the United States if the
U.S. Congress dares to speak out about the genocide," he said.
Oskanian said he discussed the resolution with Rice in Monday’s
meeting; which also focused on broader relations with Turkey,
negotiations with Azerbaijan to settle their dispute over the territory
of Nagorno-Karabakh, and preparations for Armenia’s parliamentary
elections in May.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
