Article published Oct 11, 2007
Genocide resolution advances
October 11, 2007
By Jon Ward – A House committee rejected warnings from the Bush
administration yesterday and approved a resolution condemning Turkey
for committing genocide against Armenians during World War I, an act
the White House said could jeopardize military operations in the
Middle East.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee voted 27-21 in favor of the
resolution, which will go to the House floor for a full vote in
mid-November, Democratic leaders said.
"I just don’t know how many people can be destroyed before that word
[genocide] can be applied," said Rep. Gary L. Ackerman, New York
Democrat. "Our friends in Turkey have to understand that they can get
beyond this."
But White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said President Bush was
"very disappointed" with the result. "The president made it clear that
this resolution could cause grave harm to U.S.-Turkish relations," he
said. "We will continue to oppose this resolution."
The White House yesterday used its biggest guns to argue that a
resolution could provoke Turkey to cut off U.S. access to its Incirlik
Air Base – a key component of resupply routes for the U.S. military in
Iraq and Afghanistan.
Mr. Bush spoke in a hastily arranged statement to reporters. "We all
deeply regret the tragic suffering of the Armenian people that began
in 1915," he said. But "this resolution is not the right response to
these historic mass killings."
Turkish President Abdullah Gul quickly denounced the resolution as
"unacceptable."
"Unfortunately some politicians in the United States of America have
closed their ears to calls to be reasonable and once again sought to
sacrifice big problems for small domestic political games," the state
news agency Anatolian quoted him today as saying.
Earlier yesterday, Mr. Bush met with Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice and Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates, and then sent them to
speak with reporters.
"About 70 percent of all air cargo going into Iraq goes through
Turkey. About a third of the fuel that [U.S. troops] consume comes
>From Turkey," Mr. Gates said.
Mr. Gates said U.S. military commanders raised concerns about the
resolution because "they believe clearly that access to air fields and
to 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."
Miss Rice said the military commanders "asked us to do everything we
could to make sure this does not pass" and said "we are very dependent
on a good Turkish strategic ally to help with our efforts" in Iraq.
The Armenian National Institute estimates that about 1.5 million
Armenians were killed at the hands of the Turks or died from Turkish
persecution between 1915 and 1923.
Democrats downplayed concerns about a Turkish reaction to the
resolution, saying their threats will turn out to be false.
"We will get a few angry words out of Ankara for a few days, and then
it’s over," said Rep. Brad Sherman, California Democrat.
House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer, Maryland Democrat, said the
resolution "was about another government at another time, and should
not be perceived … as a reflection on the present government, the
Turkish people or their present posture."
Rep. Dan Burton, Indiana Republican, was irate. "I just don’t
understand why we’re going to cut our nose off, shoot ourselves in the
foot at a time when we need this ally," he said.
The committee hearing drew a standing-room only crowd that included
Turkish officials and four elderly Armenian women who sat in
wheelchairs at the front of the room, wearing stickers that read, "I
am a survivor of the Armenian genocide."
One of the women Sirarpi Khoyan, 102, who was born in Istanbul, said
"there’s no two ways about" whether the Turkish killings of Armenians
>From 1915 to 1923 amounted to genocide.
"Of course it was [genocide]," she said.
Source: TION/110110076