Antiwar.com, CA
Oct 13 2007
White House Hopes to Avert Major Rift With Turkey
by Khody Akhavi
A resolution recognizing as "genocide" the deaths of 1.5 million
Armenians in the former Ottoman Empire nearly a century ago has
gained the sponsorship of a majority of members in the US House of
Representatives. But it has also drawn heavy criticism from George W.
Bush administration officials, who argue that the non-binding and
largely symbolic legislation could harm relations with Turkey at a
particularly crucial time.
The influential House Foreign Affairs Committee, chaired by
Congressman Tom Lantos, voted 27-21 to endorse the legislation
Wednesday despite the pleas of President Bush, who said it threatened
to undermine US foreign policy in the Middle East.
"We all deeply regret the tragic suffering of the Armenian people
that began in 1915, but this resolution is not the right response to
these historic mass killings," said Bush. "Its passage would do great
harm to our relations with a key ally in NATO and in the global war
on terror."
Armenia and Turkey have long opposed each other’s version of events
during and after World War I which led to the forced migration and
death of large numbers of Armenians. Armenia claims that up to 1.5
million were murdered or starved to death as part of a systematic
effort by the Turkish government to end the national liberation of
the Armenian people, and considers Turkey’s actions as "the first
genocide of the 20th century."
Turkish officials do not deny that mass killings took place but argue
that the deaths resulted from widespread fighting that occurred
during the collapse of the 600-year-old Ottoman Empire, clashes that
also left hundreds of thousands of Muslim Turks dead.
Turkey claims that 600,000 Armenians died after they allied
themselves with Russian forces invading the Ottoman Empire, and that
they were not the victims of a government-sponsored campaign of
genocide.
On Thursday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense
Secretary Robert Gates issued a joint appeal to the Congress, and
offered to provide House members with a classified briefing to
discuss what they described as the "national security interests" at
stake.
Legislators who voted for the measure defended it as a stand against
state-sponsored atrocities.
"I am Jewish. I have both a moral and person obligation to condemn
all acts of genocide no matter where or when they occur," said Rep.
Gabrielle Giffords, an Arizona Democrat, in a statement. "Our
nation’s relationship with Turkey is important. Our relationships
with all other countries are important. But our relationship with
humanity matters as well. I cannot vote to deny that the horrific
actions of the Armenian genocide occurred."
Turkey severed military ties with France after its Parliament voted
in 2006 to make the denial of the Armenian genocide a crime.
Following the US congressional vote this week, Ankara ordered its
ambassador in Washington to return home for "consultations," but says
he has not been formally withdrawn.
"A similar reaction by the elected government of Turkey to a House
resolution could harm American troops in the field, constrain our
ability to supply our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and
significantly damage our efforts to promote reconciliation between
Armenia and Turkey at a key turning point in their relations," said
Rice and Gates in the letter, as reviewed and reported by the
Associated Press.
On Thursday, Gates warned of the "enormous implications" for US
military operations in Iraq if Turkey limited flights over its
airspace and restricted access to Incirlik Air base.
"All I can say is that a resolution that looks back almost 100 years
to an event that took place under a predecessor government, the
Ottomans, and that has enormous present day implications for American
soldiers and Marines and sailors and airmen in Iraq, is something we
need to take very seriously," Gates told reporters in London.
Turkey provides significant logistical support for the US-led war
effort in Iraq. About 70 percent of all air cargo sent to Iraq passes
through or comes through Turkey, as do 30 percent of fuel and
virtually all the new armored vehicles designed to withstand mines
and bombs, according to Gates.
The legislation also comes as Turkey’s government prepares to seek
permission from parliament to carry out a cross-border offensive
against an estimated 3,000 to 5,000 members of the Kurdistan Workers
Party (PKK) based in northern Iraq, in retaliation for rebel attacks
that have killed 29 Turkish soldiers, police and civilians in the
past two weeks.
Washington has warned that a Turkish military attack across the
border in Iraq could throw into chaos the only relatively stable
region of Iraq.
The PKK, an armed separatist group whose goal has been to create an
independent socialist Kurdish state, is considered a terrorist
organization by the US, Europe and NATO, and Turkey claims it has
been responsible for more than 30,000 deaths, the majority of them
civilians, when it began using political violence in the early 1980s.
Turkey conducted its last major operation into Iraq in 1997.
Turkish President and head of the Islamist ruling Justice and
Development Party (AKP) Abdullah Gul called Wednesday’s committee
vote "unacceptable," and said, "Some politicians in the United States
have once against sacrificed important matters to petty domestic
politics despite all calls to common sense."
The Armenian resolution debate has also unleashed an aggressive
lobbying campaign by Ankara, which is spending more than 300,000
dollars a month on sophisticated public relations specialists and
former Washington lawmakers to help defeat the measure.
The Turkish Embassy is paying 100,000 dollars a month to lobbying
firm DLA Piper, which is associated with former Democratic House
Majority Leader Dick Gephardt, and 105,000 dollars to the Livingston
Group (connected to former Republican lawmaker Robert L. Livingston),
and it recently paid public relations firm Fleishman-Hillard 114,000
dollars a month, according to records filed with the Justice
Department.
(Inter Press Service)
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