ANKARA PLAYS DIPLOMATIC ‘HARDBALL’ WITH US
Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
The Guardian, UK
Oct 11 2007
A truck carries a tank toward Sirnak near the Turkey-Iraq border,
two days after Kurdish rebels killed 13 Turkish soldiers in the area.
Photograph: Burhan Ozbilici/AP
Turkey today recalled its ambassador to Washington and warned that
it would "play hardball" to persuade Congress to abandon a bill
recognising the historic persecution of Armenians.
The diplomatic rebuke to Washington came amid furious lobbying by
Bush administration officials to try to pull back the bill.
The measure, which was endorsed by the house foreign affairs
committee, yesterday in defiance of warnings from White House and
Turkish officials, would recognise the 1915 massacres and forced
deportations of Armenians as a genocide.
A house vote on the bill could come as early as tomorrow. With that
prospect looming, Turkish and US officials stepped up their pressure
on Congress today.
A Turkish foreign ministry spokesman said the ambassador, Nabi
Sensoy, would stay in Ankara for about a week or 10 days. "We are
not withdrawing our ambassador. We have asked him to come to Turkey
for some consultations," the spokesman, Levent Bilman, told reporters.
Meanwhile, the US ambassador to Turkey, Ross Wilson, was summoned
to the foreign ministry in Ankara where officials expressed their
"unease".
In Washington, a visiting adviser to the Turkish prime minister,
Tayyip Erdogan, suggested there would be more such manoeuvres to come.
"I can assure you Turkey knows how to play hardball, the adviser,
Egeman Bagis, told reporters.
The Turkish parliament is expected to vote next week to authorise
a broader intervention into northern Iraq following yesterday’s air
strikes on suspected Kurdish rebel positions.
Such a move is opposed by the US and the European Union, who fear
disrupting the relative peace in northern Iraq.
However, widespread anger in Turkey that Congress was moving forward
on a bill to classify the first world war killings of Armenians as
a genocide, could push Turkish legislators into supporting military
strikes.
The foreign affairs committee in the House of Representatives
defied appeals from President George Bush and warnings from Turkey
on Wednesday to endorse a measure that would designate the massacre
and forced deportations of Armenians in 1915 as a genocide.
The response from Ankara today was predictably harsh. "The committee’s
approval of this resolution was an irresponsible move, which at a
greatly sensitive time will make relations with a friend and ally,
and a strategic partnership nurtured over generations, more difficult,"
the foreign ministry said.
"Our government regrets and condemns this decision. It is unacceptable
that the Turkish nation has been accused of something that never
happened in history."
White House officials were almost as harsh, and said again today that
they feared that Turkey would cut off vital supply lines to Iraq.
About 70% of US air cargo for Iraq is routed through Turkey.
The warnings from US officials punctuated expressions of outrage that
percolated down through the ranks of Turkish government and society.
Ankara’s ambassador to Washington, Nabi Sensoy, said the resolution
would damage the "psyche of the Turkish people", and lead to an
anti-American backlash.
Turkish newpspapers also condemned the move in Congress, with the
Hurriyet newspaper describing the measurer as a "bill of hatred".
The timing of the move in Congress could complicate efforts by America
and the European Union to dissuade Turkey from a cross-border military
incursion that could destabilise the relatively quiet situation in
northern Iraq.
"Any possibility of complicating even more the security situation
in Iraq is something that should not be welcome," the European Union
foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, told reporters in Brussels today.
Public anger at the PKK is also high following the killing of 13
Turkish soldiers on Sunday.
However, the prime minister, Tayyip Erdogan, told CNN the measure
would not necessarily lead to an immediate intervention against PKK
Kurdish rebels believed to be based in the region.
"There have been 24 operations so far. Assessments have shown that
they haven’t yielded that much of a result. We are taking this into
account," Mr Erdogan told CNN’s Turkish language service.
The warnings from the Bush administration of the potential fallout on
US-Turkish relations persuaded some members of Congress to withdraw
their support for the measure today.
However, the house majority leader, Steny Hoyer, told Turkish officials
that he hopes to bring the resolution to a vote before the end of
the year. The resolution’s future in the Senate is far less certain.