OBAMA APPEASES TURKEY ON ARMENIA
Susan Cornwell and Arshad Mohammed
The Sunday Independent (South Africa)
March 07, 2010
WASHINGTON: The administration of US President Barack Obama has
sought to limit fallout from a US resolution branding the massacre
of Armenians by Turkish forces in 1915 as "genocide", and vowed to
stop it going further in Congress.
Turkey has recalled its ambassador after a House of Representatives
committee approved the non-binding measure condemning the killings
on Thursday.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Congress should drop the
matter now. "The Obama administration strongly opposes the resolution
that was passed by only one vote in the House committee and will work
very hard to make sure it does not go to the House floor."
The resolution squeaked through the House Foreign Affairs Committee
23-22 despite a last-minute appeal against it from the Obama
administration, which feared damage to ties with Turkey. The Nato
ally is crucial to US interests in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and the
Middle East.
The issue puts Obama between Turkey, a secular Muslim democracy
that looks toward the West, and Armenian Americans, an important
constituency in states like California and New Jersey, ahead of the
November congressional elections.
After the committee’s vote, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan
warned of possible damage to ties with the US.
Muslim Turkey accepts that many Christian Armenians were killed by
Ottoman Turks, but denies that up to 1.5 million died and that it
amounted to genocide.
The US envoy in Ankara, James Jeffrey, distanced the Obama
administration from the resolution after being invited for talks
by Turkish officials. "We believe that Congress should not make a
decision on the issue," he said.
The resolution urges Obama to use the term "genocide" when he delivers
his annual message on the Armenian massacres in April.
He avoided using the term last year, although as a presidential
candidate he said the killings were genocide. – Reuters