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Turkey, U.S. try to block Armenian deaths
measure
8.10.2007 |
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October
8, 2007
WASHINGTON, -- Turkish and American officials
have been pressing lawmakers to reject a measure
this week that would declare the World War I-era
killings of Armenians a genocide.
On Friday, the issue reached the highest levels as
President Bush and Turkish Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan talked by telephone about their
opposition to the legislation, which is to go before
the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday.
The dispute involves the deaths of hundreds of
thousands of Armenians during the waning years of
the Ottoman Empire.
Armenian advocates, backed by many historians,
contend the Armenians died in an organized genocide.
The Turks say the Armenians were victims of
widespread chaos and governmental breakdown as the
600-year-old empire collapsed in the years before
Turkey was born in 1923.
Armenian supporters of the congressional measure,
which seems to have enough votes to get approval by
both the committee and the full House, have also
been mustering a grass-roots campaign among the
large diaspora community in the United States to
make sure that a successful committee vote leads to
consideration by the full House.
Similar measures have been debated in Congress for
decades. But well-organized Armenian groups have
repeatedly been thwarted by concerns about damaging
relations with Turkey, an important NATO ally that
has made its opposition clear.
Lawmakers say that this time, the belief that the
resolution has a chance to pass a vote by the full
House has both Turkey and Armenian groups pulling
out all stops to influence committee members.
"The lobbying has been the most intense that I have
ever seen it," said the bill's sponsor, Rep. Adam
Schiff, D-Calif.
Though the largely symbolic measure would have no
binding effect on U.S. foreign policy, it could
nonetheless damage an already strained relationship
with Turkey.
After France voted last year to make denial of
Armenian genocide a crime, the Turkish government
ended military ties.
Many in the U.S. fear that a public backlash in
Turkey 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 United States. Lawmakers have
been hearing arguments from both sides about those
concerns.
The Turkish government has been holding back from
public threats while making clear that there will be
consequences if the resolution is passed.
"There will be a backlash and no government can be
indifferent to that," the Turkish ambassador in
Washington, Nabi Sensoy, said.
But Armenian groups charge that behind the scenes,
Turkey has been much more clear.
"Turkey has been threatening every sort of doomsday
scenario," said Aram Hamparian, executive director
of the interest group the Armenian National
Committee of America, which has engaged about
100,000 supporters to call lawmakers about the
issue.
"We have been saying that Turkey would harm itself
more than the United States if it carries through
with these threats."
Turkey argues that the House is the wrong
institution to arbitrate a sensitive historical
dispute. It has proposed that an international
commission of experts examine Armenian and Turkish
archives.
In the meantime, the Turkish Embassy has been in
close contact with lawmakers and is using prominent
U.S. lobbyists.
Turkish lawmakers have also been manning the phones
to congressional offices.
One congressional aide said Turkey's military chief,
Gen. Yasar Buyukanit, has been calling lawmakers to
argue that a vote will boost support for Islamists
in Turkey.
The aide spoke on condition of anonymity because of
the sensitivity of the issue. The Bush
administration has been telling lawmakers that the
resolution, if passed, would harm U.S. security
interests.
White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said Friday
that Bush believes the Armenian episode ranks among
the greatest tragedies of the 20th century, but the
determination on whether "the events constitute a
genocide should be a matter for historical inquiry,
not legislation."
White House staff have also spoken with aides to
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., in the hope
that she will stop the
measure from coming to a vote.
AP
* First world war
massacres | Related
issue:
Armenian Genocide by Turkish Muslims against
Christians
Turkey faces international pressure to recognise
that more than 1 million Armenians were massacred
during a 1915 campaign of ethnic cleansing by
Ottoman Turks. Turkish officials claim that most
deaths were caused by hunger and disease.
More about Armenian Genocide by Turks at
Genocide1915.info - The Armenian Genocide
Recognition Struggle!
**
Kurds are not recognized as an official minority in
Turkey and are denied rights granted to other
minority groups. Under EU pressure, Turkey recently
granted Kurds limited rights for broadcasts and
education in the Kurdish language, but critics say
the measures do not go far enough.
The use of the term "Kurdistan" is vigorously
rejected due to its alleged political implications
by the Republic of Turkey, which does not recognize
the existence of a "Turkish Kurdistan" Southeast
Turkey.
Others estimate over 40 million Kurds live in
Big Kurdistan (Iraq, Turkey, Syria, Iran, Armenia),
which covers an area as big as France, about half of
all Kurds which estimate to 20 million live in
Turkey.
Turkey is home to over 25 million ethnic Kurds, some
of whom openly sympathise with the Kurdish PKK for a
Kurdish homeland in the country's mainly Kurdish
southeast of Turkey.
Before August 2002, the Turkish government placed
severe restrictions on the use of Kurdish language,
prohibiting the language in education and broadcast
media.
The Kurdish alphabet is still not recognized
in Turkey, and use of the Kurdish letters X, W, Q
which do not exist in the Turkish
alphabet has led to judicial persecution in 2000 and
2003
The Kurdish flag flown officially in Iraqi Kurdistan
but unofficially flown by Kurds in Armenia. The flag
is banned in Iran, Syria, and Turkey where flying it
is a criminal offence"
Southeastern Turkey:
North Kurdistan ( Kurdistan-Turkey)
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