TURKEY WARNS US OVER ARMENIA GENOCIDE BILL
Raw Story
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March 1 2010
Turkey warned US lawmakers Monday against passing a bill that brands
World War One-era massacres of Armenians by Ottoman Turks "genocide,"
saying ties between Washington and Ankara would suffer.
The Turkish foreign ministry, which also said Turkey-Armenia
reconciliation efforts would be damaged, delivered its tough message
three days before a key US House of Representatives panel is due to
take up the non-binding measure.
The US House Foreign Affairs Committee was scheduled to vote Thursday
on the symbolic resolution, and approval would send the bill to the
full House for consideration.
"We expect the committee to reject the resolution which will harm
Turkish-US ties and impede efforts on normalizing ties between Turkey
and Armenia," the ministry said in a statement.
"We would like to believe that the members of the committee are aware
of the damage… the endorsement of the resolution will bring and,
in this context, act responsibly," it added.
The United States has traditionally condemned the 1915-1918 mass
killings of Armenians, but refrained from dubbing them a "genocide",
wary not to strain relations with Turkey, a NATO member and a key
ally in the Middle East.
US President Barack Obama pledged during his election campaign
that he would recognise the killings as genocide, but disappointed
Armenian-American supporters when he refrained from using the term
in his message last year to commemorate the killings.
"His view of that history has not changed," said US National Security
Council spokesman Mike Hammer. "Our interest remains the achievement
of a full, frank, and just acknowledgement of the facts."
"The best way to advance that goal is for the Armenian and Turkish
people to address the facts of the past as a part of their ongoing
efforts to normalize relations," said Hammer.
"We will continue to support these efforts vigorously in the months
ahead," said the spokesman.
The resolution, which does not have force of law, calls on Obama
to ensure that US foreign policy reflects an understanding of the
"genocide" and to label the mass killings as such in his annual
statement on the issue.
Washington is a firm supporter of a tentative process between Turkey
and Armenia to normalise bilateral ties and overcome decades of
hostility.
The two countries signed a deal in October to establish diplomatic
relations and open their border.
But the process has hit the rocks amid Turkish accusations that
Yerevan is trying to rewrite the terms of the agreement and Armenian
frustration at the Turkish parliament’s failure to ratify the accord.
Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their kin were killed as the
Ottoman Empire, Turkey’s predecessor, fell apart, a claim supported
by several other countries.
Turkey rejects the genocide label and says the number of Armenians
who died is grossly inflated.
The border between the two countries has been closed since 1993
when Turkey ordered it shut in a show of solidarity with Azerbaijan,
then at war with Armenia over the Nagorny-Karabakh enclave.