Author: Tavakalian Edgar

TURKISH PRESIDENT PROTESTS U.S. APPROVAL OF GENOCIDE BILL

International Herald Tribune, France
The Associated Press
Oct 11 2007

ISTANBUL, Turkey: Turkish leaders on Thursday reproached a
U.S. congressional panel decision to approve a bill describing the
World War I-era killings of Armenians as genocide.

Despite intense lobbying by Turkish officials and opposition by
U.S. President George W. Bush, the House Foreign Affairs Committee
passed the bill by a 27-21 vote – a move likely to be considered an
insult by most Turks.

Bush had warned that the bill could harm U.S.-Turkish relations, which
are already tense as Turkey considers staging a military offensive
into Iraq against Kurdish rebels who have hideouts there.

The United States fears such an operation could destabilize one of
the few relatively peaceful areas in the country.

"Unfortunately, some politicians in the United States have once again
sacrificed important matters to petty domestic politics despite
all calls to common sense," President Abdullah Gul said after the
U.S. vote on the genocide bill.

In a statement, the Turkish government condemned the panel’s vote.

"It is not possible to accept such an accusation of a crime which
was never committed by the Turkish nation," the statement said.

"It is blatantly obvious that the House Committee on Foreign Affairs
does not have a task or function to rewrite history by distorting
a matter which specifically concerns the common history of Turks
and Armenians."

Turkish newspapers denounced the decision.

"27 foolish Americans," daily Vatan said on its front-page headline,
in reference to legislators who voted in favor of the bill.

Hurriyet called the resolution: "Bill of hatred."

Bush had urged Congress to reject the legislation, and Secretary
of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates also
conveyed their concerns.

Passing the measure "at this time would be very problematic for
everything we are trying to do in the Middle East," Rice told reporters
at the White House hours before the vote

On Wednesday, hundreds of Turks marched to the U.S. Embassy in Ankara
and the consulate in Istanbul to protest the bill.

The U.S. Embassy, meanwhile, urged its citizens to be alert for
possible violence after the vote, amid fears of an increase in
anti-American feeling in Turkey.

U.S. Ambassador Ross Wilson said Thursday he regretted the committee’s
decision, and said he hoped it would not be passed by the House.

"I sincerely hope the resolution will not be passed and will continue
my efforts to convince members of Congress not to approve it," he said.

The Turkish anger over the bill has long prevented a thorough domestic
discussion of what happened to a once sizable Armenian population
under Ottoman rule.

Armenians say up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed in a systematic
genocide between 1915-17, before modern Turkey was born in 1923.

Turkey says the killings occurred at a time of civil unrest as the
Ottoman Empire was falling apart, and that the numbers are inflated.

Turkey’s political leadership and the head of state have told both Bush
and U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that passing the bill could strain
U.S.-Turkey ties, already stretched by Washington’s unwillingness to
help Ankara crack down on Kurdish rebels holed up in Iraq.

After France voted last year to make it a crime to deny the killings
were genocide, the Turkish government ended its military ties with
that country.

Many in the United States also fear that a public backlash in Turkey –
a key NATO ally – could lead to restrictions on crucial supply routes
through Turkey to Iraq and Afghanistan, and the closure of Incirlik,
a strategic air base in Turkey used by the U.S. Air Force.

OOPS BY ABC’S GIBSON: ‘A MILLION AND A HALF AMERICANS WERE KILLED BY OTTOMAN TURKS’
By Brent Baker

NewsBusters
Oct 11 2007

The MRC’s Brad Wilmouth alerted me to a slip of the tongue Wednesday
night by ABC anchor Charles Gibson, who didn’t catch and correct his
error — at least in the 6:30pm EDT feed of World News. In a brief
item on the congressional resolution labeling a 1915 massacre of
Armenians as "genocide," Gibson inadvertently said "Americans" instead:

Hard to believe, but there was a political fight in Washington today
over something that happened 92 years ago. In 1915, as many as a
million and a half Americans were killed by Ottoman Turks…

Video clip (20 secs): Real (600 KB) or Windows Media (700 KB), plus
MP3 audio (100 KB)

AdvertisementBack in June a NewsBusters item, with video, recounted
how ABC News producers confused ex-Washington, DC Mayor Marion Barry
with the man suing a dry cleaner for $54 million over lost pants:

Do all balding black guys look the same to ABC News? As anchor
Charles Gibson teased a Tuesday, June 12 World News story, about DC
administrative law judge Roy Pearson’s $54 million lawsuit against a
Korean family’s Washington, DC dry cleaning establishment over losing
a pair of his pants, viewers saw video of what clearly appeared to
be ex-DC Mayor Marion Barry. Gibson announced, over video of Barry in
front of the DC courthouse, "Pant Suit: Ever lost anything at the dry
cleaners? This man did, and claims he deserves $54 million dollars
and he’s not pulling your leg."

Barry is now a member of the District’s City Council, but he has
been in some legal trouble of late over charges of driving under the
influence, and thus has recently visited the local courthouse.

Gibson’s brief report in full on the October 10 World News (6:30pm
EDT feed as carried by Washington, DC’s WJLA-TV):

Hard to believe, but there was a political fight in Washington today
over something that happened 92 years ago. In 1915, as many as a
million and a half Americans were killed by Ottoman Turks. Scholars
call it genocide. A resolution in Congress right now wants the U.S.,
after all these years, to call it genocide. But today, the President,
the Secretary of Defense and nine Secretaries of State, past and
present, urged Congress to vote no on the resolution, arguing it would
do great harm to U.S. relations with Turkey, a crucial U.S. ally and
neighbor of Iraq. It is history colliding with today’s foreign policy.

-Brent Baker is Vice President for Research and Publications at the
Media Research Center

007/10/10/oops-abcs-gibson-million-half-americans- were-killed-ottoman-turks

ARMENIA SHOULD BE ABLE TO DEPRIVE AZERBAIJAN OF ITS ALLIES’ SUPPORT, VAHAN SHIRKHANIAN STATES
Author: Petrosian Susanna Editor: Eghian Robert

Noyan Tapan News Agency
Oct 10 2007
Armenia

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 10, NOYAN TAPAN. Azerbaijan’s aggression against
Karabakh is excluded unless it is instigated by Turkey or NATO. Vahan
Shirkhanian, the former RA Deputy Defence Minister, expressed
confidence at the October 10 discussion.

He said that if Azerbaijan, which has not learnt any lesson from the
war, decides to attack Armenia, Armenia should be ready to undertake
a number of preventive steps and not only in military, but also in the
diplomatic sphere. "It would be better if our state officials thought
of how to deprive Azerbaijan of NATO’s support and Turkey’s direct
military, financial, and moral assistance," V. Shirkhanian stated. He
reminded that the current Azeri army’s budget has increased 20-fold
as compared with 1995.

According to the former Deputy Defence Minister, if nevertheless
Azerbaijan undertakes military operations, this will be a serious
mistake, which Armenia should make use of by undertaking purely
defensive actions. V. Shirkhanian said that both the problem of
Karabakh’s recognition and Armenia’s coming out of the blockade will
be solved in that case.

"Karabakh is merely an inflamed blind gut for Azerbaijan, while
for Armenia it is a matter of existence. We have no right to cede a
single inch, as this relates to the issue of Armenia’s being or nor
being in military, political, physical sense. If we cede Karabakh,
we will cede Armenia," V. Shirkhanian stated.

CENTRAL BANK KEEPS CONFIDENTIALITY OF TALKS WITH SWISS OMX STOCK OPERATOR

ArmInfo Agency, Armenia
Oct 10 2007

ArmInfo. Because of confidentiality Armenian Central Bank does not
want to divulge the details of the of talks with Swiss OMX stock
operator, as a result of which the latter will become the owner of
Central Depository and ArmEx, chairman of Armenian Central Bank Tigran
Sarkisyan told journalists and added that they will inform about the
final results of the talks.

To note, according to the signed Memorandum, ArmEx and Central
Depository should come forward as a commerce organization but not
self-regulated organizations. The new status will make attracting of
foreign investments possible. For this reason there is a necessity
of changing of the acting legislation of Armenia with an accent of
its transmission to the European model of funds market regulation, in
particular experience of Estonia and Slovenia was used. As a result
several points appeared in the law according to which regulation
of funds market will be more effective and flexible, which will
make it possible to integrate Armenian finance market with the
stocks of European states. In particular, OMX will give to Armenian
company-emitters access to international capital without the listing
process out of the country

WORSE THAN IRRELEVANT: A CONGRESSIONAL RESOLUTION ABOUT MASSACRES IN TURKEY 90 YEARS AGO ENDANGERS PRESENT-DAY U.S. SECURITY

The Washington Post
October 10, 2007 Wednesday
Regional Edition

It’s Easy to dismiss a nonbinding congressional resolution accusing
Turkey of "genocide" against Armenians during World War I as
frivolous. Though the subject is a serious one — more than 1 million
Armenians may have died at the hands of the Young Turk regime between
1915 and the early 1920s — House Democrats pushing for a declaration
on the subject have petty and parochial interests. Rep. Adam B.

Schiff (D-Calif.), the chief sponsor, says he has more than 70,000
ethnic Armenians in his Los Angeles district. Speaker Nancy Pelosi
(D-Calif.), who has promised to bring the measure to a vote on the
House floor, has important Armenian American campaign contributors.

How many House members can be expected to carefully weigh Mr. Schiff’s
one-sided "findings" about long-ago events in Anatolia?

The problem is that any congressional action will be taken in deadly
earnest by Turkey’s powerful nationalist politicians and therefore
by its government, which is already struggling to resist a tidal
wave of anti-Americanism in the country. Turkey’s prime minister,
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, called President Bush on Friday to warn against
the resolution. Turkish politicians are predicting that responses to
passage by the House could include denial of U.S. access to Turkey’s
Incirlik air base, a key staging point for military operations in
Iraq and Afghanistan. The Turkish parliament could also throw off
longstanding U.S. constraints and mandate an invasion of northern Iraq
to attack Kurdish separatists there, something that could destabilize
the only region of Iraq that is currently peaceful.

No wonder eight former secretaries of state, including Henry
A. Kissinger, James A. Baker III, George P. Shultz and Madeleine
K. Albright, have urged Ms. Pelosi to drop the resolution, saying
it "could endanger our national security interests in the region,
including our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, and damage efforts to
promote reconciliation between Armenia and Turkey." Yet the measure
is proceeding: It is due to be voted on today by the House Foreign
Affairs Committee.

Supporters say congressional action is justified by the refusal of
the Turkish government to accept the truth of the crimes against
Armenians, and its criminalization of statements describing those
events as genocide. It’s true that Turkey’s military and political
class has been inexcusably slow to come to terms with that history,
and virulent nationalism — not Islamism — may be the country’s
most dangerous political force. But Turkish writers and intellectuals
are pushing for a change in attitude, and formal and informal talks
between Turks and Armenians are making slow progress. A resolution by
Congress would probably torpedo rather than help such efforts. Given
that reality, and the high risk to vital U.S. security interests,
the Armenian genocide resolution cannot be called frivolous. In fact,
its passage would be dangerous and grossly irresponsible.

ARMENIAN ASSEMBLY OF AMERICA BLAMED US EX-SECRETARIES OF STATE FOR AIDING AND ABETTING CAMPAIGN ON DENIAL OF GENOCIDES

ArmInfo Agency, Armenia
Oct 8 2007

ArmInfo. The Armenian Assembly of America (AAA) sent an open letter
to the eight former Secretaries of State in iew of their address to
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, which contains a call not to submit the
Resolution N06, envisaging recognition of the Armenian Genocide,
to the Congress.

As AAA told ArmInfo, the Assembly’s leadership emphasized the
ill-conceived letter is "inconsistent with the fundamentally tenets of
American values," and asked how many more excuses they could conjure
up to avoid the truth.

The Assembly letter also pointed out key facts that the former
Secretaries failed to discuss, including Turkey’s refusal to allow
the U.S. access to northern front at a critical stage in Operation
Iraqi Freedom, a refusal which cost American lives. The letter
concluded as follows: "Enough is enough. No more lies. No more
deceit. No more denial. By preventing a vote, you not only impede the
democratic process and do a great disservice to the 226 cosponsors
and the millions of Americans that support this resolution, but also
unwittingly encourage a campaign of denial. Is this the message
we want to teach future generations – it is permissible to deny
genocide." For his part, Executive Director of AAA Bryan Ardouny said
that "the Armenian Assembly will continue to push for a concluding
affirmative vote on H. Res. 106 and urges the community to call upon
their Member of Congress to support the resolution today".

Panel to vote on recognizing Armenian genocide

Published: 10/08/2007

A congressional committee will vote on whether to recognize the World
War I massacres of Armenians as a genocide.

The U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee will vote
Wednesday on bipartisan legislation recognizing the genocide, a move
fiercely opposed by Turkey and major Jewish organizations. The groups
are concerned about its impact on Turkish ties with the United States
and Israel, as well as its potential impact on Turkish Jews.

"The United States has a compelling historical and moral reason to
recognize the Armenian genocide," said Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), a
member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. "But we also have a
powerful contemporary reason as well — how can we take effective
action against the genocide in Darfur if we lack the will to condemn
genocide whenever and wherever it occurs?"

The Armenia issue has roiled the Jewish community since Watertown,
Mass., a Boston surburb, moved this summer to end its partnership with
an anti-bigotry program sponsored by the Anti-Defamation League. The
ADL had refused to recognize the killings as genocide, but was forced
to reverse itself amid the uproar, acknowledging the massacres were
"tantamount to genocide."

Source: ml

TURKISH PREMIER TELLS BUSH GENOCIDE BILL WOULD HURT TIES
by Michael Abramowitz; Washington Post Staff Writer

The Washington Post
October 6, 2007 Saturday
Suburban Edition

The prime minister of Turkey telephoned President Bush yesterday to
complain about a resolution before Congress describing the killing
of 1.5 million Armenians during and after World War I as a "genocide."

Bush expressed his opposition to the measure and his belief that
passage would be "harmful" to U.S.-Turkey relations to Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe.

"The president has described the events of 1915 as ‘one of the greatest
tragedies of the 20th century’ but believes that the determination
of whether or not the events constitute a genocide should be a matter
for historical inquiry, not legislation," Johndroe said.

But Bush’s words may not be enough to diminish strong congressional
support for the resolution. Brendan Daly, spokesman for House Speaker
Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), said the resolution is likely to be approved
in committee next week and, with 226 co-sponsors, appears to have
the votes to pass on the floor. While Pelosi has spoken to Turkish
officials and is mindful of their concerns, Daly added, "it’s a
bipartisan bill" and "she is supportive of bringing it the floor."

Such resolutions long have irritated U.S.-Turkish relations, but
passage of such a measure has been this close only once: In 2000,
a similar resolution was pulled from the House floor after President
Bill Clinton intervened.

Turkey has acknowledged that large numbers of Armenians were killed
between 1915 and 1923, during the latter stages of the Ottoman Empire,
but it rejects descriptions of the killings as a genocide and notes
that many Muslim Turks were also killed during this time period.

Among the retaliatory steps being mentioned in Ankara is the
possibility of denying the United States the use of an airbase in
southern Turkey, through which the Pentagon moves a considerable amount
of supplies for the war effort in Iraq. Erdogan told Bush in the call
that the bill would also "damage efforts to develop relations between
Turkey and Armenia," according to the state-run Anatolian news agency.

At a briefing for reporters yesterday, Daniel Fried, the top
State Department official in charge of Europe policy, said the
administration does not deny "that a terrible and inexcusable tragedy
of mass killings and forced exile" befell the Armenians. "But we do not
believe that this bill would advance either the cause of historical
truth or Turkish-Armenian reconciliation or the interests of the
United States, and we oppose it."

Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.), the author of the legislation, said
in a statement this week that the United States has "a compelling
historical and moral reason to recognize the Armenian genocide,
which cost a million-and-a-half people their lives. But we also have
a powerful contemporary reason as well — how can we take effective
action against the genocide in Darfur if we lack the will to condemn
genocide whenever and wherever it occurs?"

AMERICAN-TURKISH COUNCIL WARNS ON GENOCIDE BILL

Turkish Daily News
Oct 6 2007
Turkey

In a letter sent to members of the United States House of
Representatives, chairman of the American-Turkish Council, retired
U.S. General Brent Scowcroft warned against the ramifications of a
possible approval of the Armenian genocide bill by the U.S. Congress.

Scowcroft warned that the U.S. could risk losing a significant part
of its trade with Turkey if the resolution passes.

KIRO MANOYAN: ARMENIAN GENOCIDE RESOLUTION WILL PASS

PanARMENIAN.Net
08.10.2007 12:36 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ "The U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee will
pass the Armenian Genocide Resolution October 10, ARF Bureau’s Hay
Dat and Political Affairs Office Director, Kiro Manoyan told a news
conference in Yerevan.

"The Turkish lobby has launched an active campaign to block the
resolution. Erdogan’s phone conversation with Bush, talks between
the Turkish Foreign Minister and Israeli President, and finally,
the letter of eight former Secretaries of State speak of Turkey’s
concern about the possible passage of the H.Res.106.

However, the Armenian National Committee of America is wide awake
and will not allow torpedoing of the vote.

Eight former Secretaries of State have eight votes; the Armenian
community has much more votes. This fact should be taken into account
on the threshold of presidential and congressional elections in 2008,"
he said.

"Israel is in an awkward position now. The Jewish community in the
U.S. cracked into two parts – one recognizing the Armenian Genocide,
the other still hesitating. Israel will have to choose, though it’s
hard," Kiro Manoyan said.

The U.S. House Foreign Relations Committee will hold a vote on the
Armenian Genocide Resolution October 10.

The House version of the Resolution, H.Res.106, was introduced January
30 by lead author Rep. Adam Schiff.

It has 227 co-sponsors.