RICE: US SHOULD NOT BE INVOLVED IN ‘GENOCIDE’ DISPUTE

Today’s Zaman, Turkey
March 22 2007

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said yesterday that the United
States should not be involved in a dispute between Turkey and Armenia
over whether the killing of Armenians almost a century ago constituted
genocide.

Under intense questioning from Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff, the sponsor
of a resolution that would declare that Turkey’s Ottoman predecessor
state committed genocide, Rice repeatedly avoided answering whether she
believed there was any basis for historical debate on the matter. "What
we’ve encouraged the Turks and the Armenians to do is to have joint
historical commissions that can look at this, to have efforts to
examine their past, and in examining their past to get over it,"
she said. "I don’t think it helps that process of reconciliation for
the United States to enter this debate at that level."

Turkey categorically dismisses charges that Armenians were victims
of genocide at the hands of the late Ottoman Empire during World War
I and says the killings took place when the Ottoman authorities were
trying to quell an Armenian revolt in collaboration with the Russian
army invading eastern Anatolia.

A delegation from Turkey’s leading business group, the Turkish
Industrialists and Businessmen’s Association (TUSÝAD), is currently
in Washington as part of lobbying efforts to prevent passage in the
US Congress of a resolution that urges the US administration to label
the World War I events as genocide.

Arzuhan Yalcýndað, the TUSÝAD chairwoman, said Tuesday that the
prospects for Turkey preventing the passage of the resolution were
better now than they were two months ago, although the risk that it
could be passed was still in place.

Yalcýndað likened the resolution to a "dark cloud" over US-Turkey
relationship; she said, however, initiatives on behalf of Turkey to
prevent the resolution’s success have been successful so far.

Answering questions at a news conference after the TUSÝAD delegation’s
meetings at the US State Department and think tanks, she said relations
with Armenia could be improved and that TUSÝAD has been developing
ideas in that regard but the present situation does not allow it.

"First, the dark clouds should be dispersed, then the Turkish Foreign
Ministry will evaluate the circumstances," she added.

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