GATES DENOUNCES ARMENIAN GENOCIDE RESOLUTION

AP
Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
March 28 2007

The U.S. defense secretary said Tuesday that both Turkey and the
United States needlessly damage their relations by sniping at each
other and said they should stop it.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates mentioned no concrete examples but
clearly referred to a resolution pending in the U.S. Congress that
would accuse Turkey’s predecessor state of committing genocide against
its Armenian neighbors a century ago.

"Our two nations should oppose measures and rhetoric that needlessly
and destructively antagonize each other," Gates said in a speech
to the American Turkish Council, a business group that promotes
U.S.-Turkish relations.

Gates continued: "That includes symbolic resolutions by the United
States Congress as well as the type of anti-American and extremist
rhetoric that sometimes finds a home in Turkish political discourse."

Gates and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice sent joint identical
letters two weeks ago to House leader Nancy Pelosi and the chairman of
the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Rep. Tom Lantos, both Democrats,
and the leader of the Republican minority, John Boehner, that said
passage of the resolution would put U.S. security at risk.