This is a problem. On the one hand, we need to be on good terms with Turkey for obvious reasons. On the other hand...
Bush urges rejection of Armenia genocide resolution
Wed Oct 10, 2007 12:14pm EDT
By Tabassum Zakaria
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush on Wednesday urged U.S. lawmakers to reject a congressional resolution calling the 1915 massacres of Armenians genocide, saying it would do "great harm" to U.S. relations with Turkey.
"This resolution is not the right response to these historic mass killings," Bush told reporters at the White House.
The House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee is to consider the Armenian genocide resolution later on Wednesday. If it passes, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a longtime supporter of the measure, could then decide to bring it before the full House for a vote.
Many Democrats, who control Congress, support the resolution, which has 226 co-sponsors, more than half the House.
The measure comes at a delicate time for Turkey-U.S. relations.
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, who telephoned Bush last week about the Armenian resolution, confirmed on Wednesday his government was drawing up plans to authorize a cross-border incursion into northern Iraq to strike Kurdish rebels after 15 Turkish soldiers were killed in attacks in recent days.
Washington has urged Turkey not to send troops into mainly Kurdish northern Iraq for fear of destabilizing the country's most peaceful region.
In calling on lawmakers to reject the Armenian measure, Bush said: "Its passage would do great harm to our relations with a key ally in NATO and in the global war on terror."
The bulk of supplies for U.S. troops in Iraq pass via Turkey's Incirlik airbase. Turkey also provides thousands of truck drivers and other workers for U.S. operations in Iraq.
HARD LOBBYING
Turkey has warned of damage to bilateral ties if Congress passes the Armenian bill, and a delegation of Turkish lawmakers visited Capitol Hill on Tuesday to underscore that point.
Turkey strongly rejects the Armenian position, backed by many Western historians and a growing number of foreign parliaments, that up to 1.5 million Armenians suffered genocide at the hands of Ottoman Turks during World War One.
Ankara says many Muslim Turks as well as Christian Armenians died in inter-ethnic conflict as the Ottoman Empire collapsed.
The resolution recognizing the 1915 mass killings of Armenians by Turks as genocide was introduced in the House by Rep. Adam Schiff, a California Democrat who has a large number of Armenian-Americans in his district.
Similar resolutions have been introduced in the House for years, with Armenian-American groups lobbying hard for passage.
The proposals have sometimes passed committees. But while Republicans controlled Congress, they blocked a vote by the full House, saying they did not want to embarrass Turkey.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the resolution would be "very destabilizing to our efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan because Turkey, as an important strategic ally, is very critical in supporting the efforts that we are making in these crucial areas."
Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates made statements to reporters at the White House, emphasizing the administration's concern that the resolution would hurt U.S. ties with Turkey.
