Detroit Free Press, MI
Oct 12 2007
A WARNING TO U.S.: Turkey, an ally, disputes genocide
October 12, 2007
BY CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey, a key supply point for U.S. troops in Iraq,
recalled its ambassador to the United States on Thursday and warned
of serious repercussions if Congress labels the killing of Armenians
by Turks a century ago as genocide.
The summons of the ambassador for consultations, ordered after a U.S.
House panel endorsed the genocide measure, was a further sign of
deteriorating relations between two longtime allies and the potential
for new turmoil in a troubled region.
Egeman Bagis, an aide to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, told
Turkish media that the nation might have to "cut logistical support"
to the United States.
Analysts speculate the resolution could make Turkey more inclined to
send troops into northern Iraq to hunt Turkish Kurd rebels, a move
opposed by the United States because it would disrupt one of the few
relatively stable areas in Iraq.
"There are steps that we will take," Erdogan said. He declined to
answer questions about whether Turkey might shut down Incirlik air
base in southern Turkey, a major cargo hub for the U.S. military and
allied forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"You don’t talk about such things, you just do them," he said.
The House committee decision prompted reaction on the streets of
Ankara, the Turkish capital, where the youth branch of the extreme
leftist Workers’ Party laid a black wreath at the entrance to the
U.S. Embassy and spray-painted the Turkish flag on an embassy wall.
The group held Turkish flags, posters of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk,
founder of the Turkish Republic, and banners that read: "Armenian
genocide is an imperialistic lie," the semi-official Anatolian News
Agency reported.
The measure before Congress is a nonbinding resolution, but the
debate has incensed Turkey’s government. Relations between the two
NATO allies have stumbled in the past. They hit a low in 2003, when
Turkey’s parliament refused to allow U.S. forces to use the country
as a staging ground for the invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.
While repercussions against the United States appeal to many Turks,
leaders know such a move could hurt Turkey’s standing as a reliable
ally of the West. Even so, Turkey suspended military ties with France
last year after its parliament’s lower house approved a bill that
would have made it a crime to deny the mass killings of Armenians in
Turkey amounted to genocide.
The Bush administration, which is lobbying strongly to have Congress
reject the resolution, stressed the need for good relations with
Turkey.
"We look forward to his quick return and will continue to work to
maintain strong U.S.-Turkish relations," Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman
for the National Security Council, said of Turkish Ambassador Nabi
Sensoy.
U.S.-Turkish ties already were strained by Turkey’s complaint that
the United States hasn’t done enough to stop Turkish Kurd rebels from
using bases in northern Iraq to stage attacks in southeastern Turkey,
a predominantly Kurdish area where tens of thousands of people have
died in fighting since 1984.
Turkish warplanes and helicopter gunships attacked suspected rebel
positions on the border this week, and parliament is expected to vote
next week on a proposal to allow the military to pursue a large-scale
offensive in northern Iraq.
The U.S. ambassador to Turkey, Ross Wilson, was invited to the
Foreign Ministry, where officials conveyed their unease over the
resolution and asked the Bush administration to do all in its power
to stop passage by the full House, a ministry official said.
Turkish officials said the House had no business getting involved in
writing history. "It is not possible to accept such an accusation of
a crime which was never committed by the Turkish nation," Turkey’s
government said after the committee adopted the measure.
The New York Times contributed to this report.