US WARNS OF TURKISH REPRISALS AS ARMENIA GENOCIDE VOTE LOOMS
Sydney Morning Herald, Australia
Oct 11 2007
A bid by US legislators to label the Ottoman massacre of Armenians
a "genocide" will trigger Turkish reprisals and undermine Iraq,
Afghanistan and Middle East peace, the administration warned on
Tuesday.
President George Bush and his top lieutenants were unusually
blunt in attacking what is a non-binding resolution in the House
of Representatives, highlighting anxiety over the impact on a key
diplomatic and military alliance.
Bush said the resolution would do "great harm" to ties with Turkey,
a Muslim-majority member of NATO whose territory is a crucial transit
point for US supplies bound for Iraq and Afghanistan.
"This resolution is not the right response to these historic mass
killings; its passage would do great harm to our relations with a
key ally in NATO and in the global war on terror," the president said
outside the White House.
In a joint appearance following talks with Bush, Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice and Defence Secretary Robert Gates also denounced
the measure as the House Foreign Affairs Committee convened for debate
later Wednesday.
Rice said she sympathised with Armenians’ fate during World War I,
when according to the Armenians, 1.5 million of their kinsmen died
in systematic deportations and killings under the Ottoman Empire.
"But the passage of this resolution at this time would, indeed, be
very problematic for everything that we’re trying to do in the Middle
East because we are very dependent on a good Turkish strategic ally
for this," she said.
The House resolution, which has a parallel measure in the Senate
pipeline, would be "very destabilising for our efforts in Iraq and
Afghanistan," Rice added.
Rejecting the genocide label, Turkey argues that 250,000 to 500,000
Armenians and at least as many Turks died in civil strife when
Armenians took up arms for independence in eastern Anatolia during
World War I.
Turkey has already warned that passage of the House resolution
could force it to bar the United States from a key military base in
its south.
Gates said that about 70 per cent of all Iraq-bound US air cargo,
95 per cent of tough new mine-resistant vehicles and one-third of
the military’s fuel transit through Turkey.
US commanders "believe, clearly, that access to airfields and to
the roads and so on in Turkey would be very much put at risk if this
resolution passes and the Turks react as strongly as we believe they
will," he said.
In a letter Tuesday to Bush, new Turkish President Abdullah Gul
"drew attention to the serious problems that will emerge in bilateral
relations if the bill is adopted."
But the measure has strong backing in the House, where the Armenians’
wartime plight has been likened to the Nazi Holocaust against the Jews.
The resolution authored by Democratic Representative Adam Schiff, whose
California district contains the country’s largest ethnic-Armenian
community, has won the backing of at least 226 co-sponsors in the
435-seat House.