AHN – All Headline News
Oct 11 2007
Turkey Orders U.S. Envoy To Return Home Amid Controversial Armenian
Genocide Bill
October 11, 2007 7:22 p.m. EST
Jay Olle – AHN News Writer
Washington, D.C. (AHN) – The Turkish Ambassador to the United States,
Nabi Sensoy, will return to Ankara as tensions continue to rise
following the passage of a U.S. House bill calling the killings of
Armenians during World War I a genocide.
"We are not withdrawing our ambassador. We have asked him to come to
Turkey for some consultations," Foreign Ministry spokesman Levent
Bilman said Thursday. Turkey was quick to say this wasn’t the end of
diplomatic relations between the two countries.
Orders arrived from Ankara on Wednesday right after the bill passed
the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. The move, strongly lobbied by
Armenian-American interest groups, pushed through despite strong
contradictions from President George Bush and several other
lawmakers. The House may put it to a general vote on Friday.
Turkey is an important U.S. ally in the Middle East. Defense
Secretary Robert Gates noted that Ankara allows American planes and
vehicles to use its airspace and roads, with 70 percent of all air
cargo bound for Iraq traveling through Turkey.
Gates believed that access to airfields and roads would be put at
risk if the resolution passes the House, if "the Turks react as
strongly as we believe they will," he said.
Turkish President Abdullah Gul, in an announcement through the
government’s official website, finds the resolution "unacceptable"
and "doesn’t fit a major power like the United States." He warned
Bush that "in the case that Armenian allegations are accepted, there
will be serious problems in the relations between the two countries."
"We still hope that common sense will prevail and that the House of
Representatives will not move this resolution any further," Gul said.
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