TURKEY WARNS OF ‘REPERCUSSIONS’ IF US ARMENIAN BILLS PASS
By Spencer Swartz
Dow Jones Newswires
30 March 07
ANKARA -(Dow Jones)- The United States will witness "repercussions"
from Turkey, a key ally, if the U.S. Congress approves proposals to
categorize the World War I deaths of thousands of Armenians fleeing
the Ottoman Empire as genocide, the Turkish Foreign Minister told
Dow Jones Newswires on Friday.
The Turkish military is also poised to crack down on an armed Kurdish
rebel group that has been in a decades-long conflict with Turkey
if Iraq and the U.S. don’t do more to protect the Turkish border,
Gul said in an interview.
Gul would not say exactly when the Turkish military had entered
northern Iraq to combat the Kurdistan Workers Party or P.K.K.
"From time to time we have gone into the area," he said. "It is
our legitimate right to take all necessary measures to fight this
terrorist group. They are using weapons against us," he said, adding
that Turkey respected Iraq’s territorial sovereignty.
Turkey, an important NATO ally and strategic ally of the U.S., has
urged the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives to drop some draft
Armenian bills.
Top U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, have also asked some Congress
members to abandon the measures, which Turkey considers insults.
Legislatures in 15 countries have approved symbolic measures calling
the Armenian deaths genocide. France passed such a resolution in
October, which resulted in Turkey canceling many defense contracts
with that country.
Gul did not spell out exactly what consequences would follow if
Congress moves forward on the Armenian measures.
"How can politicians over there debate something they know little
about?" he asked. "Do they know the (Ottoman Empire’s) foreign
minister at the time was Armenian, along with many (Ottoman)
ambassadors? … that thousands of Turks also died during this time?"
"If it happens (Congress votes to approve the measure), there will
be repercussions," Gul said. "We have strategic relations with the U.S.
I get along with many people there, but it is my duty to talk about the
consequences of these actions. The measures are an insult to Turkey."
Gul, who spoke on several matters in a 45-minute interview at his
office in the Turkish capital, said Turkey was willing to go to Iran
to mediate a standoff between Iran and Britain after Iran seized
15 sailors and marines last week, if doing so would help resolve
the situation.
"We are in discussions with Iran. We’ve made our opinions known and
we hope this will be resolved soon," he said.
Iran seized the military personnel after, Iranian officials assert,
British boats entered Iranian waters. The British government roundly
denies this and says the personnel were in Iraqi waters.
Gul, who was appointed Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign
Affairs four years ago, challenged Congress to appoint some members
as third parties to a panel, along with Armenia, on the sensitive
historical question. "They can come here. We’ll open up all the
archives. We’re ready to face the result," he said.
Armenians and many international historians insist that thousands of
Armenians died at the hands of the Turks during the final days of the
Ottoman Empire. But a chasm has existed for decades between Turkey
and many historians outside that country over the circumstances under
which the deaths occurred.
The Ottoman Empire deported Armenians that led to the deaths of
around 1.5 million between 1915 and 1923, according to many historical
estimates.
Most human rights observers have called the period genocide but Turkey
rejects the terminology and says the deaths resulted during a time
of war and followed an Armenian rebellion during which thousands of
Turks died.
Although relations between Turkey and the U.S. have thawed in the
past couple of years, memories are still fresh in Washington of
Turkey’s refusal to approve the Bush Administration’s request to
allow U.S. troops passage from Turkey into Iraq during the 2003
American-led invasion.
Turkey has been frustrated with the Iraqi government and the U.S.over
their refusal to crackdown on the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK,
which Turkey says has grown stronger in relatively peaceful northern
Iraq.
Gul said he believed the U.S.was "shy and embarrassed" by the fact
that it was not doing more to reduce the PKK threat in the region
even though it was battling militants in other parts of the world.
"I’ve told Vice President Cheney: ‘what if there were terrorists in
Mexico coming over the border into the US. What would you do? What
do you expect us to do in this situaton with the PKK?’ "
The PKK, branded a terrorist group by Turkey, the European Union and
the U.S., picked up arms in 1984 to carve out an ethnic homeland in
Southeast Turkey in a campaign that led to the deaths of more than
30,000 civilians.
After the capture of the group’s leader in 1999, the insurgents largely
withdrew from Turkey to neighboring Iran and Syria, but mostly to
northern Iraq, where Turkey fears the group has regrouped.
Gul’s comments come days after Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi
warned against a Turkish incursion into northern Iraq and promised
to prevent cross- border attacks by the rebels.
The U.S. has also warned against Turkish entry into the region as
it fears such a move could lead to tension with local non-combative
Iraqi Kurdish groups — key U.S. allies — and to wider conflict in
a region that has been the only real success story since the U.S.
removed Saddam Hussein from power.
Gul, a founding member of the ruling Justice and Development Party,
said he was optimistic that the restart of discussions this week with
the European Union over Turkey’s decades’ long quest to join the EU
would lead to broader discussions.
"Two chapters are being discussed now and I think we’ll have four
more in the coming weeks," he said.
In the near future, the two governments should discuss economic
and monetary policy issues, culture and education, statistics, and
financial controls, he said.
-By Spencer Swartz, Dow Jones Newswires; +44 (0)207 842 9357;
spencer.swartz@ dowjones.com
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
