TURKEY WARNS US ON ARMENIA BILL
By Agencies
MWC News
;Ite mid=1
Oct 10 2007
Canada
CULTURE
Armenians say 1.5 million people died at the hands of Ottoman Turks
in 1915-1917 [EPA]
Turkey’s president has warned that relations with the United States
could be harmed if US politicians pass a resolution declaring the
killing of hundreds of thousands of Armenians at the beginning of
the 20th century an act of genocide.
The US House of Representatives’ foreign affairs committee is set to
vote on the measure on Wednesday.
If the resolution, which is opposed by the Bush administration,
is passed it will be considered by the full House of Representatives.
Abdullah Gul, the Turkish president said there would be "serious
troubles in the two countries’ relations" if the measure is approved.
Turkish members of parliament spent Tuesday making their case to
members of the committee that will consider the resolution.
"I have been trying to warn the lawmakers not to make a historic
mistake," Egemen Bagis, a foreign policy adviser to Recep Tayyip
Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister, said.
Up to 1.5 million Armenians are believed to have been killed in
1915-1917 as the Ottoman empire collapsed.
But Turkey says the death toll has been inflated and that the Armenians
were victims of a civil war and internal unrest.
Demonstrations feared
The US embassy in the Turkish capital, Ankara, has warned Americans
that the resolution could prompt protests in Turkey where, opinion
polls say, anti-Americanism is already strong due to the Iraq war.
"There could be a reaction in the form of demonstrations and other
manifestations of anti-Americanism throughout Turkey," the embassy
said in a statement.
Gul said the resolution would cause ‘serious troubles’ with the US
[File: AFP]
There are also concerns that a public backlash in Turkey could lead
to restrictions on crucial supply routes through Turkey to Iraq and
Afghanistan, and the closure of Incirlik, a strategic air base used
by the US air force.
"Let us not forget that 75 per cent of all supplies to your troops
in Iraq go through Turkey," Bagis said.
After France voted last year to make it crime to deny that the Armenian
killings were genocide, the Turkish government ended military ties
with Paris.
Some analysts have said that the anger created by the genocide
declaration could make it hard for the Turkish government to resist
public calls to cross into Iraq in pursuit of Kurdish separatists.
Ankara said on Tuesday that it was preparing for raids into northern
Iraq as it was willing to use all necessary measures against fighters
from the PKK group.
"If the Armenian genocide resolution passes, then I think that the
possibility of a cross-border operation is very high," Ihsan Dagi,
a professor of international relations at Middle East Technical
University in Ankara, said.
‘Unique opportunity’
Armenian groups in the US have been rallying the large diaspora
community to push for a succesful committee vote so the bill can be
discussed in the full House.
On Tuesday, Bryan Ardouny, executive director of the Armenian Assembly
of America, wrote to Tom Lantos, the committee’s Democratic chairman
and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, its leading Republican member.
"We have a unique opportunity in this congress, while there are still
survivors of the Armenian genocide living among us, to irrevocably
and unequivocally reaffirm this fact of history," he said.
Catholicos Karekin II, the head of the Armenian Apostolic Church, will
give the opening invocation to the House’s session ahead of the vote.