TURKEY: BUSH MUST COMPENSATE FOR VOTE
by Joshua Kucera
EnerPub, TX
1454
Oct 15 2007
The US House appears set to approve a resolution that would officially
characterize the World War I-era massacre of Armenians in the Ottoman
Empire as genocide.
The resolution, though lacking any force of law, would mark the
culmination of years of effort by Armenian-Americans to win such
recognition from Congress. Turkey has already expressed its anger
over developments by recalling its ambassador to Washington for
consultations.
On 10 October, the House Foreign Affairs Committee passed the
resolution on a 27-21 vote. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, a
Democrat from California, has said that the matter will come to a
full vote before the House by the end of November. The resolution
currently has 220 co-sponsors, which would represent enough votes
for the measures adoption.
The resolution is strongly opposed by the Bush administration, but
it is not clear whether the White House, which made great efforts
to defeat the bill in committee, will continue to expend political
capital on what increasingly appears to be an inevitable defeat.
President George W Bush, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates all personally called members of
the committee to try to persuade them to vote against it.
Under one scenario, provided the genocide resolution is adopted, the
Bush administration may attempt to undertake a pro-Turkish initiative
to mollify Ankara. A delegation of Turkish members of parliament,
who were in Washington to lobby against the resolution, warned on
October 11 that the US-Turkish alliance could suffer serious damage
unless Washington made a goodwill gesture, such as adopting a much
tougher stance toward the PKK, a Kurdish terrorist organization.
"The only remedy of yesterday’s mistake is concrete cooperation in
the fight against the PKK," said Egemen Bagis, an MP and foreign
policy advisor to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. "I
don’t know of any other option that can somehow soften the hearts of
72 million Turks."
"Some members of the US Congress yesterday wanted to play hardball,"
he continued. "I can assure you that Turkey can play hardball. Our
experience of having a state is 1,000 years old. The ball is in your
court, and you have to show us that Turkey matters. Show us on the
PKK, show us on bringing this to the floor or not bringing this to
the floor, or other issues."
Asked if the PKK-for-genocide-resolution trade might be the strategy
before the full House vote, another parliamentarian, Gunduz Aktan,
said, "We don’t know yet, but that is a possibility, that is a real
possibility." The Turkish MPs declined to speculate on what specific
action Ankara would seek from Washington regarding the PKK issue.
Meanwhile, Turkish leaders in Ankara were infuriated by the House
committee vote. "This unacceptable decision of the committee, like
similar ones in the past, is not regarded by the Turkish people as
valid, or of any value," the Anatolia news agency quoted President
Abdullah Gul as saying. Turkish officials indicated that the
ambassadorial recall would be temporary.
Bush administration officials said immediately after the vote that they
will continue to work to oppose the resolution. "The administration
continues strongly to oppose this resolution, passage of which may
do grave harm to US-Turkish relations, and to US interests in Europe
and the Middle East," said State Department spokesman Sean McCormick
in a statement.
"If what we saw before the committee vote was any indication, I think
the administration will continue to press," said Aram Hamparian,
executive director of the Armenian National Committee of America.
"But we have truth and morality on our side."
For the 10 October hearing, both a large hearing room and an overflow
room were filled. Dozens of Armenian-Americans, including a handful
of elderly survivors of the 1915 tragedy, wore stickers reading
"Stop the Cycle of Genocide." A large Turkish press corps was also
in attendance, as were a much smaller number of Turks opposing the
resolution. In the overflow room, where a closed-circuit television
showed the proceedings, the Armenians and Turks alternately cheered
or booed the members’ statements.
Several members of Congress described agonizing decisions they had
to make on the resolution. Most recognized that that the events of
1915 met the standard of genocide; Many of those who opposed the
resolution said they did so out of respect for Turkey as a friend,
or out of fear that Turkey could retaliate by curtailing cooperation
on Iraq. On the other hand, many who voted for the resolution said
they resented Turkey’s threats.
"There was indeed a genocide of the Armenians and it will not
be forgotten," said Representative Mike Pence, a Republican from
Indiana. "But I can’t support this resolution. With American troops
in harm’s way, dependent on a critical supply route from Turkey,
this is not the time for our nation to be speaking about this dark
moment in history."
Another Republican, Dana Rohrabacher of California, however, decried
the "the audacity that some Turks have to threaten to cut logistics
to US troops… Perhaps they’re not as good friends as they profess,"
he said.
The hearing was broadcast live in both Armenia and Turkey, and the
Turkish parliamentarians said that even the tenor of the hearing
offended them. For example, several congressmen suggested that
Turkey might be bluffing and that if the resolution passes it will
be forgotten quickly in Ankara.
"Those people who claim Turkey is bluffing should not mock Turkey on
live TV," Bagis said. "I think that was a big mistake. Turks are very
peculiar about their honor."
"What was bothering me yesterday was that those [US representatives]
who were supporting the Turkish case, 21 of them, they said loud and
clear that the events of 1915 amounted to genocide," Aktam said.
"Despite this fact, because of the strategic importance of Turkey,
because of the national interest of the US, they are voting no. This
was unbearable."