ARMENIA ‘GENOCIDE’ VOTE IS SNUB TO BUSH
By Daniel Dombey in Washington
Financial Times, UK
Oct 11 2007
US legislators on Wednesday defied the Bush administration and angered
the Turkish government when they voted to describe the mass killings
of Armenians more than eight decades ago as genocide.
The 27-21 decision by the House of Representatives foreign affairs
committee, which paves the way for a vote in the full House in coming
weeks, came in spite of a warning from George W. Bush, president,
and his top officials that co-operation with Turkey and the fate of
US troops in Iraq could be at stake.
It also comes as the US seeks to convince Turkey not to carry out a
large-scale military incursion into northern Iraq to crack down on
Kurdish militants.
Proponents of the measure, which has vigorous support from the
Armenian-American population, argue that its call for Mr Bush to
"accurately characterise the systematic and deliberate annihilation
of 1.5m Armenians as genocide" is essential to putting the historical
record straight.
"The sad truth is that the modern government of Turkey refuses to
come to terms with this genocide," said Representative Christopher
Smith of New Jersey, at an emotionally charged session attended by
four survivors of the mass killings that began in 1915.
"Let us do this and be done with it," said Representative Brad Sherman
of California. "We will get a few angry words out of Ankara for a
few days, and then it’s over."
But only hours before the committee voted Mr Bush warned that passage
of the resolution "would do great harm to our relations with a key
ally in Nato and in the global war on terror".
According to US commanders in Iraq, including Gen David Petraeus,
Robert Gates, defence secretary, said: "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 added that about 70 per cent of US air cargo going into
Iraq went through Turkey.
US officials say passage of the resolution by the full House will make
Washington’s bid to convince Turkey not to launch a military incursion
into Iraq much harder. Public outrage against the Kurdish separatist
PKK has flared in the wake of an attack in which 13 soldiers were
killed on Sunday.
Washington’s push for Turkey take a more collaborative approach on
combating PKK has also been complicated by the resignation of Joseph
Ralston, the retired US general who had been seeking to increase
Washington-Ankara co-operation against the militant group.
"For his own reasons he decided that he was going to be moving on,"
said Sean McCormack, state department spokesman, this week. "Any
continuing presence of the PKK or the continuing activities of the
PKK is not because what he did or did not do." He added that he was
not yet aware of a possible replacement for Gen Ralston.