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US Armenian genocide bill angers Turks
16.2.2007
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February 16, 2007
It seems an odd way to treat a friend. Washington's
relations with Turkey, a key Nato ally, have been on
the slide since 2003, when Ankara's parliament
refused to allow US troops to transit into Iraq.
That infuriated the Bush administration.Ensuing
chaos in Iraq and the impetus the occupation has
given Kurdish secessionism infuriated Turks in their
turn. Iran and Hamas are other points of strain. One
recent poll found 81% disapproved of US policies.
Now the relationship is heading for a potentially
spectacular rupture after the decision of the US
House of Representatives' newly installed Democratic
leadership to follow France in endorsing a bill
officially recognising as genocide the 1915 killings
of Christian Armenians by Muslim Turks. As matters
stand, there is sufficient bipartisan support to
pass the measure if, as expected, it is put to a
vote in the next few weeks.
The genocide label is an ultra-sensitive issue in
Turkey. The country has long claimed that mass
killings at the time by both sides were part of the
civil upheavals accompanying the collapse of the
Ottoman empire. "If this measure is adopted it will
create a very serious problem in US-Turkish
relations," a senior Turkish official said
yesterday. "You cannot put Turkey in the same shoes
as the Nazis."
Armenia (and the Armenian diaspora) should accept a
proposal by Turkey's prime minister, Recep Tayyip
Erdogan, to set up a joint commission to study what
happened, the official said.
But politics in Ankara and Washington are stoking
confrontation. A presidential election is due in
Turkey in May, followed by parliamentary polls this
autumn. Neither Mr Erdogan, tipped as the next
president, nor other candidates can ignore intense
national feelings stirred by the genocide debate.
At the same time, the Democratic speaker, Nancy
Pelosi, like other members from California, has a
vociferous Armenian-American constituency to
placate. When Turkey's foreign minister, Abdullah
Gul, was in Washington last week, she refused to
meet him. "Local politics must not be allowed to
poison strategic ties," Mr Gul said later; passage
of the bill would create a "nightmare".
Calls are already being heard in Turkey for a
downgrading of bilateral military cooperation,
including logistical assistance to US forces in
Iraq. General Yasar Büyükanit, chief of the Turkish
general staff, went to the Pentagon this week to
spell out the possible damaging consequences.
"Turkey is playing the security card against the
genocide bill," wrote columnist Mehmet Ali Birand of
the Turkish Daily News. That meant, he said,
reminding the Americans of Turkey's contributions in
Afghanistan and Kosovo, its supportive ties to
Israel - Ehud Olmert was in Ankara yesterday - and
the way it "actively participates in communications
between Iran and the US".
The White House opposes the bill but may be unable
to stop it. Meanwhile, the US is urging Turkish
"outreach" to Armenia in the wake of the Hrant Dink
murder.
But new reasons for killing off the resolution are
emerging every day. One is that a surge in
anti-Americanism after its passage could translate
into a Turkish decision to ignore Washington and
send its troops into Kurdistan (northern Iraq), with
potentially disastrous consequences for US efforts
to stabilise the country.
The senior Turkish official said there was no plan
to intervene and no link to the genocide bill. But
Ankara is increasingly impatient over US reluctance
to suppress armed PKK separatists who launch raids
into south-east Turkey from Iraqi Kurdistan. And
according to Asli Aydinbas, of the paper Sabah, a
"limited and defined" Turkish military intervention
in Iraq is already on the cards.
"The US government believes passage of the Armenian
resolution would make a cross-border operation more
likely," he said. "Even a debate on the floor of the
House of Representatives would end Washington's
power to deter such an operation." Seen this way,
the genocide bill could spark a whole new bloodbath.
guardian co.uk
* 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.
*
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.
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
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