Author: Vardapetian Ophelia

Hayots Ashkharh Daily, Armenia
Oct 12 2007

US uses recognition of Armenian genocide to calm down Turkey

Journalist Vardan Grigoryan reflects in Hayots Ashkharh daily on
whether there is a relation between the US Senate decision as of 24
September to divide Iraq into three administrative-regional units,
the recent Turkish-US confrontation and the inclusion of 106
resolution on the recognition of the Armenian genocide on the agenda
of the US House of Representatives, the newspaper reports.

Grigoryan considers there are three points of view concerning this
issue. The supporters of the first view consider that the US efforts
leading to final formation of a Kurdish state in northern Iraq and
the process of recognition of Armenian genocide are not related, and
that the inclusion of 106 resolution on recognition of Armenian
genocide on the agenda of US House of Representatives is a result of
active cooperation between the Armenian lobby in the US and US
Democrat senators.

Grigoryan says that the second view supported, in particular, by the
director of the Oriental Studies Institute of Armenia’s National
Academy of Sciences, Ruben Safrastyan, is that there are deep
relations between the process with the Kurds in Iraq and recognition
of Armenian genocide, with a reservation that the resolution on
recognition of Armenian genocide was merely an accelerant for US in
implementing a military operation in Iraq.

Grigoryan consider that the third view is based on the question – why
the US Senate decision to divide Iraq as of 24 September and the
closely related issue of referendum on the fate of Kirkuk coincided
with Turkey’s preparations to invade Iraq?

The journalist says that in order to answer all the three questions,
one should note that the official position of the US policy in
winning the fight against terrorism in Iraq is no more seriously
perceived and many in the USA consider that the decent way out of the
US involvement in Iraq is federalization, that is the division of
Iraq, the policy which is favoured by the de-facto existing Kurdish
autonomy in the north of Iraq. Grigoryan reports that the Jewish
lobby in the USA does everything possible to protect the formation of
Kurdish state in Iraq. The journalist believes that the issue of
Armenian genocide in essence is not that important in aggravation of
USA-Turkey relations and proposing resolution 106 for discussion of
US House of Representatives Foreign Relations Committee is a means to
calm down Turkey.

The Daily Telegraph (LONDON)
October 13, 2007 Saturday

‘The river flowed with blood’ Helen Brown applauds a scrupulously
researched history of human liquidation that makes a legal case for
genocide

by Helen Brown

BOOKS; Pg. 28

A Shameful Act: the Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish
Responsibility
by Taner Akçam
tr by Paul Bessemer
580pp, Constable & Robinson, pounds 9.99 (pbk)

T pounds 9.99 (plus 99p p&p) 0870 428 4112

In 2005, the Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk was charged with the
criminal offence of "insulting Turkishness” for stating that "a
million Armenians were killed in these [Turkish] lands and nobody
dares to talk about it”. Last October, he was awarded the Nobel
Prize for Literature, becoming the first Turkish Nobel prizewinner.
But in Turkey the use of the word "genocide” to describe the deaths
of hundreds of thousands of Armenians in the early 20th century is
still taboo, and carries a three-year prison sentence.

In his scrupulously researched book on the ethnic cleansing that
Theodore Roosevelt described as "the greatest crime” of the First
World War, the Turkish-born sociologist and historian Taner Akçam
calls on the people of Turkey "to consider the suffering inflicted in
their name”. In the measured tone used throughout his account of
these horrific human "liquidations”, Akçam tells the people of his
homeland that all communities are prone to dwell not on the wrongs
they have inflicted but on those they have endured. And that in
recording the decline of the Ottoman Empire, Turkey has too long
"memorialised” the massacre of Muslims by Armenians, Bulgarians,
Greeks and others "while making no mention of suffering inflicted by
Muslims on non-Muslim groups such as the massacre of Christians, let
alone the Armenian genocide… To prevent the recurrence of such
events,” he says, "people must first consider their own
responsibility, discuss it, debate it, and recognise it.”

To be fair to the men and women on the Turkish streets, there are
practical reasons why they might not know too much about their
country’s uncomfortable past. The Alphabet Reform of 1928 changed
Turkish script from Arabic to Latin letters and, "with a stroke of a
pen”, writes Akçam, "the Turkish people lost their connection to
written history”, becoming dependent on the version sanctioned by a
state that had "pruned” its archives of most incriminating documents
in 1918. To this day, the complete official court records from the
period are absent and those documents still extant are often
dismissed by Turkish scholars as "victors’ justice” imposed by the
Allies, eager to discredit the Ottomans and carve up the empire.

Akçam – who obtained political asylum in Germany in the 1970s after
receiving a 10-year prison sentence for involvement in a student
journal, and now teaches in America – has sought out documents from
around the world. He has hunted down the memoirs of foreign
missionaries and ambassadors and the telegrams sent by the
perpetrators to make a solid case for the genocide having been
planned and orchestrated by the Turkish Nationalist party. He
explains how, following their defeat in the Balkan War of 1912-13,
the Ottomans lost more than 60 per cent of their territory, and a
deep belief developed that it was impossible for the Turks to live
side by side with the empire’s remaining Christian population.
Although Armenian men were conscripted to fight for Turkey in the
Great War, they were suspected of forming a fifth column. And after
Turkey’s devastating defeat by the Russians at Sarikamish in 1914-5,
the Armenians in the army were led away from their units and killed.

It was also at this time that the "deportations” began. Although
Turkish war criminals argued that they just wanted the Armenians out,
Akçam points out that no transport was provided. He convincingly
argues that the implicit aim was elimination. Armenian homes and
possessions were confiscated or looted. If groups of Armenian women,
children and the elderly weren’t slaughtered, they died on death
marches or through starvation. Men such as Celal, the
governor-general of Aleppo, asked the ministry of war to provide
housing for the deportees and was refused. He recalls feeling "like a
man standing by a river without any means of rescue. But instead of
water, the river flowed with blood and thousands of innocent
children, blameless old men, helpless women and strong young people
all on their way to destruction. Those I could seize with my hands I
saved; the others I assume floated downstream, never to return.”
Such moments of emotion are rare in this book: Akçam is attempting to
make a watertight legal case for genocide, and has nearly 200 pages
of footnotes.

We in the West must face our own responsibility. We read how, after
1920, the British abandoned their demand for the war criminals to be
punished, and many of those responsible found their way straight back
into the "new” Turkish government. In a depressing final paragraph,
Akçam says that because the Great Powers used words such as "human
rights” and "democracy”

to legitimise the most obvious colonial moves, Turks began to view
both notions as ‘Western hypocrisy’. Beyond the specific historical
reasons, the fundamental problems that lay behind the failure to
bring the perpetrators of the Armenian genocide to justice persist to
this day. If it is not possible to draw a clear line of division
between humanitarian goals, on the one hand, and a state’s economic
and political interests, on the other, then how are we to come to a
consensus about ethical norms?

While acknowledging that this question remains unanswered, Akçam
seems optimistic. He has dedicated his book to a devout Muslim Turk
who risked death by hiding members of an Armenian family in his home,
whose "courageous act continues to point a way towards a different
relationship between Turks and Armenians.”

CounterPunch, CA
Oct 12 2007

Should Armenian Allies Bomb the United States?
Washington’s Holocaust Deniers

By BRENDAN COONEY

In light of President Bush’s opposition to a resolution that would
acknowledge the Armenian genocide, the question must be considered as
to whether he is a madman who cannot be trusted with nuclear weapons.

Should Armenian allies adopt a preemptive approach and bomb strategic
North American sites?

U.S. press reports of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad denying
the Nazi genocide have been a flashpoint of the popular perception
here that he is either insane or a beast. In either case, he is
someone who must be attacked before he can obtain nuclear weapons.

When Ahmadinejad is asked these days whether the Nazi holocaust
occurred, he says historians need to conduct more research. It is an
answer that bears an uncanny resemblance to that of U.S. Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice when asked about the Armenian holocaust.

In this clip, when Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) asks Rice if there is
any doubt in her mind that the murder of 1.5 million Armenians
between 1915 and 1923 constitutes a genocide, she says, "I think that
the historical circumstances require a very detailed and sober look
from historians, and what we’ve encouraged the Turks and the
Armenians to do is to have joint historical commissions that can look
at this, to have efforts to examine their past, and in examining
their past to get over their past."

This is akin to saying the Jews and Germans should get together and
study this question of atrocities, and then for them both to get over
it. "Lots of people are coming to terms with their history," Rice
adds.

She goes on to say that she doesn’t think the United States weighing
in would help the process of reconciliation between Turkey and
Armenia. Well, there’s an answer Ahmadinejad might wish to consider
next time a goofy "60 Minutes" guy asks him for his Holocaust
position: "I don’t think me giving an answer would help the Jewish
healing process."

Why is there such a runaway-mad perception in the United States that
Ahmadinejad is a runaway madman? It’s because Vice President Dick
Cheney and others in the Administration want to attack Iran, and they
are flailing around for a casus belli.

The propaganda campaign against Ahmadinejad is working on two layers,
like the trompe l’oeil of an improbable masterpiece. In the
background we see hues of a kook with violent intent. Logic fades as
we’re beguiled by the colors; we forget that there are probably
plenty of leaders around the world whose views would affront us, and
that we normally don’t bomb for beliefs. In the foreground are
strokes outlining purported actions. These are things he hasn’t just
thought but done, such as the supplying of weapons that are killing
our boys and girls in uniform. There’s blood on his hands! We’re
already at war with him! The painting becomes vivid, and all sense is
lost, as are recollections of the original crime of invading and
occupying a sovereign nation.

In simple terms, the propaganda war seeks to prove two things: This
is a bad person, and this is a person who has done bad things. One
attacks a mode of thought, the other a mode of action. On the
mode-of-thought level, Ahmadinejad is portrayed as guilty of two
things: he wants to wipe Israel off the map, and he denies that the
Holocaust occurred. Ahmadinejad’s defenders dispute both, and they
point to issues of context and translation. On the mode-of-action
level, he is charged with supporting "terrorism" in Iraq with money
and weapons.

It is hard to watch all the documentaries showing how we were duped
five years ago and think that it could ever happen again, let alone
so soon afterward. The pretext for invading Iraq was seen as a flimsy
lie by nearly everyone in the world except the ideologically tiny
island of people living in the United States. The propaganda washed
like a tsunami over the minds of everyone on that island. And don’t
blame the hoi polloi. Journalists and "intellectuals" were the first
to be swept away.

Now the Administration is seeking to disprove that infamous Texas
slogan: "You can fool me, but you can’t get fooled again."

Already the "intellectuals" have been suckered. Columbia University
President Lee Bollinger called Ahmadinejad a "petty and cruel
dictator" to his face and suggested he was "astonishingly ignorant."
This from a man astonishingly ignorant of the fact that Iran’s
unelected commander-in-chief, the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, holds
more power than its elected president, Ahmadinejad.

In Iraq, it was the supposed existence of weapons that might or might
not be used against the United States that caused our leaders and
citizens to support an invasion. A mighty thin veil for naked
aggression. Now we’re sifting through Ahmadinejad’s speeches for
attitudes that might predispose him to act in a certain way if he
obtains weapons in a few years and is re-elected in 2009 though he’s
not even the commander-in-chief? How thin can the veil get?

What about Turkey’s denial of the Armenian holocaust? Do we even know
who the leader of Turkey is, let alone if his eyes are too close
together? No, no. We need Turkey right now to keep our occupation
well-fed, as Defense Secretary Robert Gates reminded us yesterday. We
can talk history another day.

But just like the Jews protesting Ahmadinejad’s speech at Columbia
University last month, the Armenians see the relevance of discussing
history now. And if Bush and his crew continue to deny their
genocide, they could take a page from Cheney’s playbook and say that
here is a lunatic country that must be stopped. It is a
holocaust-denying nation that is considerably further along in its
development of nuclear weapons than even Iran and more than anyone
else has demonstrated a willingness to use them.

Could the friends of Armenia paint this into a picture that makes
bombing the United States seem like the only sane solution? Nah, the
only ones who would buy a painting like that are living all alone on
a little island.

Brendan Cooney is an anthropologist living in New York City. He can
be reached at: [email protected]

http://www.counterp unch.org/cooney10122007.html

Turan News Agency, Azerbaijan
Oct 11 2007

Azeri chief cleric critical of US draft resolution on Armenian genocide

Azerbaijan’s chief cleric Haci Allahsukur Pasazada has described the
draft resolution on the genocide of Armenians adopted by the US House
of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs as "erroneous", the
Azerbaijani news agency Turan has reported.

He said the adoption of the resolution will have a negative impact on
the image of the United States not only in Turkey, but also in the
whole Islamic world. "The United States will feel that," Turan quoted
the cleric as saying.

On the one hand, the USA is setting up a coalition against
international terrorism, but on the other, it is trying to legally
justify a country that encourages terrorism. In this case, why does
the USA not recognize the genocide in Xocali (massacre of Azeris in
Nagornyy Karabakh in 1992)? Especially as the witnesses of this event
are still alive, the agency quoted him as saying.

Pasazada said that Turkey can take serious measures against the USA
and call on all Muslim states to raise their voice of protest, Turan
reported. This mistake will affect both Afghanistan and Iraq, he
said.

"Before it is too late, President Bush and Congress must eliminate
this mistake and not deepen the abyss with Islamic states," the
agency quoted Pasazada as saying.

ARMENPRESS

PELOSI SAYS RESOLUTION TO BE PRESENTED FOR ENTIRE
HOUSE VOTE

WASHINGTON, OCTOBER 12, ARMENPRESS: House of
Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday she
would present an Armenian Genocide bill to the House
despite US and Turkish anger over the measure.
`I don’t have a date in mind, but it will before
the end of this session. I’ve said if comes out of
committee it will go to the floor. Now it has come out
of committee and it will go to the floor,’ said Pelosi
during her weekly Capitol Hill briefing.
`I’ve been in Congress for 20 years and for 20
years people have been saying the same thing that
Turkey’s strategic location in the Cold War–that was
before the Soviet Union came down. Then they said that
because of their strategic location. Then came the
Gulf War I. Then in the Clinton years, it was the
pipeline and airspace. Now they’re saying it is Gulf
War II. They are saying ‘why do it now?’ Because, all
of us in the Democratic leadership have supported
[it]. We are reiterating Americans’ acknowledgement of
the Genocide. When the Genocide was happening, our
diplomats there reported a plan for the
annihilation–elimination–of a race of Armenians. One
that was planned ahead,’ added Pelosi.
`Ronald Reagan–President Reagan–in 1981 referred
to the Armenian Genocide and said that we cannot
forget that and other persecutions of people that have
occurred. While that may have been a long time ago,
genocide is taking place now in Darfur. It did in
recent memory in Rwanda. So, as long as there’s
Genocide there’s a need to speak against it,’
emphasized Pelosi.
The Speaker rejected the assertion from a reporter
that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s
decision to move ahead with a planned incursion into
Northern Iraq was tied to Wednesday’s vote in the
House Committee.
`You think the Prime Minister of Turkey asked the
parliament of Turkey for permission to have an
incursion into Iraq because of the Armenian
resolution? I don’t think so. This is about Turkey’s
plans. This isn’t about our resolution about the
Genocide,’ asserted Pelosi.
`If the prime minister would imply that but for the
resolution they wouldn’t have this incursion; I don’t
think so!’ commented Pelosi.

TURKISH MPS: BUSH ADMINISTRATION MUST MAKE GOODWILL GESTURE TO COMPENSATE FOR US HOUSE COMMITTEE VOTE
Joshua Kucera

EurasiaNet, NY
Oct 12 2007

The US House of Representatives 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 October 10, 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 October 10 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."

THE SPECTRE THAT HAUNTS TURKEY

Buzzle, CA
Oct 12 2007

"Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?"

said Adolf Hitler, before ordering storm troopers to kill men,
women and children in Poland so Germany could have Lebensraum, or
living space.

Hitler was wrong about the killings of Armenians as about so many
things.

The death of hundreds of thousands of Armenians between 1915 and
1917 after the collapse of the Ottoman empire and the emergence
of modern Turkey in 1923 has not been forgotten and now bedevils
US-Turkey relations.

Turkey has condemned a vote by the House of Representatives foreign
affairs committee yesterday that recognizes the massacres as genocide –
the deliberate and systematic destruction of an ethnic, religious or
national group.

Turkish governments have consistently denied the accusation; they
say the killings occurred at a time of civil unrest as the Ottoman
empire fell apart and that the numbers are inflated.

To say that claims of Armenian genocide touch a raw nerve in Turkey
is an understatement.

When the French parliament decreed last year that criminal charges
be filed against anyone who denied genocide was committed against the
Armenians, Turkey cut off military contacts with France and canceled
some contracts.

In January, Hrant Dink, a Turkish-Armenian journalist, was shot dead
outside his newspaper, Agos, after he called the killing of Armenians
genocide. More than 100,000 people marched at his funeral procession,
chanting: "We are all Armenians."

Yet, although an outspoken critic of Turkey’s denial that the events
of 1915 amounted to genocide, Dink was equally opposed to international
attempts to politicize the issue.

When the French parliament made denying the Armenian genocide a crime,
he vowed to travel there to deny it.

Orhan Pamuk, the winner of last year’s Nobel prize for literature, was
hauled before an Istanbul court in 2005 for "belittling Turkishness"
– a criminal offense – by raising the issue of genocide.

Pamuk was taken to court after telling a Swiss newspaper that the
massacres of more than one million Armenians and of more than 30,000
Kurds in Turkey [in the 1990s] were taboo topics in his country.

The trial in Istanbul turned ugly, with a mob of baying nationalists
scuffling with the writer’s supporters as riot police looked on.

Pamuk was acquitted on a technicality, but the case damaged Turkey’s
efforts to project itself as an increasingly liberal country seeking
to join the EU.

The notorious article of the penal code remains.

Turkey’s harsh reaction to those who dare to break political taboos by
wanting to discuss the Armenian genocide comes despite the fact that
22 countries and organizations, such as the Elie Wiesel Foundation
for Humanity, recognize it as such.

The mass killings of Armenians, one of the largest minorities in the
Ottoman empire, followed Turkey’s disastrous military campaign against
the Russians in the Caucasus in 1914 after Ankara sided with Germany.

The Turks blamed the defeat on the Armenians living in the region
siding with the Russians.

In 1915 Armenian intellectuals were rounded up and laws were passed
authorizing the deportation of Armenians and the confiscation of
their homes and property.

Over the next two years the Armenian population of Ottoman Turkey
was uprooted and expelled to the desert regions of Mesopotamia.

In the process between 500,000 and a million Armenians were killed
or died of exposure or disease.

President Theodore Roosevelt would later call the episode "the greatest
crime of the war".

Turkey’s official position is that deaths occurred during the
"relocation" or "deportation" and cannot be called "genocide".

Turkey keeps Iraq option open

October 12, 2007

By Selcan Hacaoglu – ANKARA, Turkey (AP) – Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan said today that Turkey would not be deterred by the possible
diplomatic consequences if it decides to stage a cross-border
offensive into Iraq against Kurdish rebels.

"If such an option is chosen, whatever its price, it will be paid,"
Erdogan told reporters in response to a question about the
international repercussions of such a decision, which would strain
ties with the United States and Iraq. "There could be pros and cons of
such a decision, but what is important is our country’s interests."

Erdogan also had harsh words for the United States, which opposes a
Turkish incursion into northern Iraq – one of the country’s few
relatively stable areas.

"Did they seek permission from anyone when they came from a distance
of 10,000 kilometers and hit Iraq?" he said. "We do not need anyone
else’s advice."

Analysts say Turkey could be less restrained about defying the United
States because of a congressional committee’s approval of a resolution
labeling the mass killings of Armenians around the time of World War I
as genocide.

"Democrats are harming the future of the United States and are
encouraging anti-American sentiments," Erdogan said. Democratic
leaders in the House of Representatives support the resolution.

Erdogan said Turkey was ready to sacrifice good ties with Washington
if necessary.

"Let it snap from wherever it gets thin," Erdogan said, using a
Turkish expression that means breaking ties with someone or something.

At issue in the resolution is the killing of up to 1.5 million
Armenians by Ottoman Turks. Turkey denies that the deaths constituted
genocide, saying the toll has been inflated, and those killed were
victims of civil war and unrest that killed Muslims as well as the
overwhelmingly Christian Armenians.

Turkey, a key supply route to U.S. troops in Iraq, recalled its
ambassador to Washington for consultations and warned of serious
repercussions if Congress passes the resolution.

"In the United States, there are several narrow-minded legislators who
can’t think of their own interests and who cannot understand the
importance of Turkey," said Murat Mercan, head of the Turkish
parliament’s foreign relations committee.

Turkish authorities have refused to comment on whether Turkey might
shut down Incirlik air base in southern Turkey, a major cargo hub for
U.S. and allied military forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. Turkey’s
Mediterranean port of Iskenderun is also used to ferry goods to
American troops.

The Yeni Safak newspaper, which is close to the Turkish government,
said today that Incirlik and $15 billion worth of defense contracts,
including purchase of warplanes, missile and radar systems, could be
reviewed. Turkey could also prevent U.S. firms from taking part in new
contracts, Yeni Safak said.

Erdogan said Turkey has long been seeking the cooperation of Iraq and
the United States in its fight against Kurdish guerrillas, but there
has been no crackdown on the rebel Kurdistan Workers Party, which has
bases in Iraq. Erdogan said a recent anti-terrorism deal signed with
Iraq was not valid since it had not been approved by Iraq’s parliament
yet.

The Turkish parliament was expected to approve a government request to
authorize an Iraq campaign as early as next week, after a holiday
ending the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

"We are making necessary preparations to be ready in case we decide on
a cross-border operation since we don’t have patience to lose more
time," Erdogan said, adding that Turkey has lost 30 people in rebel
attacks over the past two weeks.

A Turkish soldier was killed in a mine explosion on Thursday night on
Mt. Gabar in southeastern Sirnak province, authorities said Friday.

Turkish army units, backed by helicopter gunships, were hunting rebels
in the rugged border area.

Bahoz Erdal, a senior rebel commander, said the PKK fighters were
moving further inside Turkey and taking new "positions" in the face of
attacks from Turkey, pro-Kurdish Firat News Agency reported Friday.
The agency is based in Belgium.

The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people since 1984.

Source: le?AID=/20071012/FOREIGN/110120114/1003

PRESS RELEASE
Catholicosate of Cilicia
Communication and Information Department
Contact: V.Rev.Fr.Krikor Chiftjian, Communications Officer
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HIS HOLINESS ARAM I VISITS SFEIR,
SAYS CHRISTIAN UNITY FORMS THE BASIS OF LEBANON’S UNITY

Catholicos Aram I met today with His Beatitude the Maronite Patriarch Mar
Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir in Bekerke. After the meeting, which was held behind
closed doors, His Holiness made the following statement:

"We support the initiative of Patriarch Sfeir to invite the communal and
political leaders of the Maronites to Bekerke. Christian unity forms the
basis of the unity of Lebanon. It should start with strengthening the
internal unity of the Maronite community."

The Armenian Pontiff observed: "Lebanon is at a critical crossroads in its
history. A wrong move can lead Lebanon to serious conflict. Our long years
of hardship should teach us that our strength is in our collective unity.
Lebanon before and above everything else: this should be the only motto of
all the Lebanese citizens, communities and political parties. Internal
sensitivities and differences should not push us away from those principles
that form the basis of Lebanon’s existence: independence, sovereignty,
freedom, unity, territorial integrity and coexistence."

On the presidential elections, His Holiness said: "The election of a
president is an imperative. It should take place on the basis of the
principles and time frame established by the Constitution. Someone who is
above all sides should be elected as President, become the President of the
whole of Lebanon, who creates mutual trust between the different sides,
defends Lebanon’s supreme interests and values, and restores Lebanon’s
important role and place in the international community."

His Holiness returned yesterday from his trip to Europe and in the upcoming
days he will visit Belgium and Italy, where he will deliver lectures and
meet with political and religious officials.

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View the photo here:
tos/Photos43.htm#2
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The Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia is one of the two Catholicosates of
the Armenian Orthodox Church. For detailed information about the Ecumenical
activities of the Cilician Catholicosate, you may refer to the web page of
the Catholicosate, The Cilician
Catholicosate, the administrative center of the church is located in
Antelias, Lebanon.

SAFRASTYAN: ANKARA LIKELY TO TAKE ANTI-U.S. STEPS IF H.RES.106 PASSES

PanARMENIAN.Net
10.10.2007 14:30 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ "Turkey may put into practice its threats to the
United States if the Armenian Genocide resolution passes. However,
they are not likely to do much harm to the U.S.," Director of the
Institute of Oriental Studies at the RA Academy of Sciences, Dr Ruben
Safrastyan told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter.

"Evidently, Turkey will launch military operations in Northern Iraq in
revenge. Turkish PM Erdogan has already given consent to intrusion. An
appropriate draft bill will be approved in the parliament. As to
restricting the U.S. use of Incirlik base and blocking crucial supply
routes to Iraq, I do not suppose Turkey will resort to such extreme
measures," he said.

"Passage of the H.Res.106 may push Turkey to a greater sovereignization
of foreign policy. Striving after the role of main regional
power, Turkey wants to ensure its security at the expense of its
neighbors. This tradition has been maintained since the times of the
Ottoman Empire.

There is one more circumstance. This resolution is non-binding. It
can’t force the President to use the term ‘genocide’ in his
speech. It’s just a House Bill, which will not be introduced into the
Senate. As for Turkey, it has simply taken an opportunity to pursue
its own foreign policy," Dr Safrastyan said.

The H.Res.106 resolution is scheduled for a vote October 10 before
the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.