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US: Turkey's World War I killings of
Armenians was a "genocide"
11.10.2007 |
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October 11, 2007
WASHINGTON, -- US lawmakers defied strident
warnings by President George W. Bush by voting
Wednesday to label the Ottoman Empire's World War I
massacre of Armenians as "genocide" sparking
condemnation from Turkey.
To cheers and applause from emotional Armenians,
including elderly wheelchair-bound survivors, the
House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee
voted for the resolution by 27 votes to 21.
A Turkish government statement Thursday said the
"irresponsible" resolution was likely to endanger
bilateral relations.
"We still hope that the House of Representatives
will have enough good sense not to take this
resolution further," said the statement.
To do so, it added, would jeopardise a strategic
partnership with an ally and friend and would be an
"irresponsible attitude", it added.
"It is unacceptable that the Turkish nation should
be accused of a crime that it never committed in its
history."
The US State Department on Wednesday also expressed
regret at the vote and said it hoped the move would
not interfere with relations with Turkey.
"We regret that the House Foreign Affairs Committee
has approved House Resolution 106," State Department
spokesman Sean McCormack said in a statement.
"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," McCormack said.
Assistant Secretary of State Nick Burns said the
department was communicating to Turkey its
unhappiness with the vote and its desire to keep
working closely with Ankara.
He said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will
call the Turkish leadership Thursday to explain the
US position.
"We will obviously impress upon the Turkish
leadership our deep disappointment, the fact that we
opposed this resolution," Burns said.
He said he hoped Turkey would not respond with
damaging countermeasures.
"We hope very much that the disappointment can be
limited to statements and not extend to anything
concrete that would interfere with the very good way
that we have been working with the Turks for so many
years."
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Annie Karakaian -- a survivor of the massacre of
Armenians by Ottaman Turkey AFP
Turks seem to rejoice watching a massacred Armenian
Christian family. Even babies were tortured and
massacred.
Piles of skulls of Armenian Christians massacred by
the Turks.
Photo from
bibleprobe.com,
to see the photos and real story visit the website
|
Bush and top lieutenants earlier were unusually
blunt in attacking the non-binding resolution,
warning that it would trigger Turkish reprisals and
undermine US efforts in Iraq, Afghanistan and the
Middle East.
The measure is likely to be sent on to a vote in the
full Democratic-led House, where a majority has
already signed on to the resolution. A parallel
measure is in the Senate pipeline.
Bryan Ardouny, executive director of the Armenian
Assembly of America, lauded "a historic day" after
the committee's vote.
"It is long past time for the US government to
acknowledge and affirm this horrible chapter of
history -- the first genocide of the 20th century
and a part of history that we must never forget," he
said.
The text says the killings
of up to 1.5 million Armenians was a "genocide" that
should be acknowledged fully in US foreign policy
towards Turkey, along with "the consequences of the
failure to realize a just resolution."
It was passed on Wednesday by the Democratic-led
House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee
by 27 votes to 21, despite warnings by President
George W. Bush and Turkey.
It will now go to the the full House for a possible
vote.
While the American-Armenian community celebrated,
Turkish President Abdullah Gul denounced the vote as
"unacceptable" and accused the House members of
sacrificing US interests to "petty games of domestic
politics."
Turkey's ambassador to Washington, Nabi Sensoy, told
AFP the vote was "very disappointing" and called on
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to refrain from bringing
it to a full vote.
Sensoy, who has personally lobbied more than 100
House members against the resolution, added that
"those who said it won't do any harm, we will have
to wait and see."
Bush said the resolution would do "great harm" to
ties with Turkey, a Muslim-majority member of NATO
whose territory is a crucial transit point for US
supplies bound for Iraq and Afghanistan.
According to the Armenians, 1.5 million of their
kinsmen were killed from 1915 to 1923 under an
Ottoman Empire campaign of deportation and murder
that later encouraged Nazi leader Adolf Hitler's
Holocaust against the Jews.
Rejecting the genocide label, Turkey argues that
250,000 to 500,000 Armenians and at least as many
Turks died in civil strife when Armenians took up
arms for independence in eastern Anatolia during the
war.
Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates also
denounced the measure before the hearing, after
veiled threats from Ankara that US access to a
sprawling air base in southern Turkey could be
denied.
But despite the warnings, the resolution's backers
warned the issue could not be ignored as they drew
parallels to the Holocaust and the present-day
bloodshed in the Sudanese region of Darfur.
"We've been told the timing is bad," Democratic
House member Gary Ackerman said in an emotional
hearing that lasted nearly four hours. "But the
timing was bad for the Armenian people in 1915."
Republican lawmaker Dan Burton, however, said
passage of the genocide resolution could endanger US
troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"We're in the middle of two wars. We have troops out
there who are at risk. And we're talking about
kicking an ally in the teeth. It is crazy."
AFP
* 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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