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Bush administration to reassure Turkey of
its opposition to proposed genocide resolution
6.2.2007 |
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February
6, 2007
WASHINGTON. February 5, -- U.S. officials
will reassure the Turkish foreign minister,
currently visiting Washington, that they will try to
quash a proposed resolution in Congress condemning
as genocide the early 20th century killings of
Armenians.
In talks with Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, U.S.
officials also will discuss Turkish worries that the
United States is not doing enough to prevent Kurdish
rebels from operating in Northern Iraq.
The meetings come at a tense moment for relations
between the United States and Turkey, a moderate
Muslim democracy and NATO ally crucial to U.S.
operations in Iraq.
President George W. Bush's administration is alarmed
that the suggested congressional resolution could
disrupt efforts to repair strains stemming from
perceptions in Ankara that regional instability
caused by the U.S.-led war in Iraq have harmed
Turkish interests.
The administration has opposed previous attempts by
members of Congress to pass resolutions recognizing
the 1915-1919 killings in Anatolia of up to 1.5
million Armenians as an organized genocide. A
resolution introduced in the House of
Representatives in January is thought to stand a
much better chance of passing a floor vote.
State Department officials say the administration
will work with members of Congress to head off the
resolution.
"A congressional resolution would be a tremendous
blow to our bilateral relationship," said U.S.
Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matthew J. Bryza.
"We are working harder than usual."
Turkey has adamantly denied claims by scholars that
its predecessor state, the Ottoman government,
caused the Armenian deaths in a genocide. The
Turkish government has said the toll is wildly
inflated, and Armenians were killed or displaced in
civil unrest during the disarray surrounding the
empire's collapse.
In meetings with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice and National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley,
Gul is expected to press the administration to block
the resolution.
But Bush will have to persuade the new
Democratic-controlled congress, which does not need
presidential approval for such a resolution. Members
behind the proposed bill have said they expect a
push by the administration and lobbyists working for
the Turkish government to keep the resolution from a
full vote by the House.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who will decide whether
to offer the bill for a full vote if, as expected,
it is approved by the House Foreign Affairs
Committee, has expressed support.
Gul also is likely to discuss with U.S. officials
the question of Kurdish rebels from Turkey using
Iraq as a springboard for attacks on Turkish
territory. Turkey has been unhappy with the level of
cooperation in rooting out militants from the
Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, holed up in the
Kurdish region of northern Iraq.
Ret. Gen. Joseph Ralston, a former NATO supreme
allied commander, has been coordinating U.S. efforts
for countering the PKK.
"General Ralston is working to decrease those
tensions on both sides of the border between the
Iraqis and the Turkish," State Department spokesman
Sean McCormack told reporters Monday.
"We are engaging in diplomacy so that you don't end
up with an armed confrontation in northern Iraq. I
don't think anybody really wants to see that."
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will meet with
Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul on Tuesday to
talk about Iraq, including the issue of Kurdish
rebels using Iraq as a springboard for attacks on
Turkish territory, the State Department said Monday.
Turkey has been unhappy with the level of U.S.
cooperation in rooting out militants from the
Kurdistan Workers Party or PKK holed up in the
Kurdish region of northern Iraq.
Also on the agenda will be Iran and Turkey's
application to join the European Union, State
Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.
AP
*
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. The Kurds have no rights in
Turkey.
Others estimate as many as 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 some 20 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
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) wikipedia
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.
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