BUSH WARNED OVER GENOCIDE BILL
The Mercury, Australia
PerthNew, Australia
The Australian, Australia
Oct 5 2007
TURKISH Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan told US President George W. Bush
that ties between the two countries would be hurt if the US Congress
passed a Bill branding the 1915 mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman
Turks "genocide", Turkish television reported today.
Mr Erdogan, who issued a similar warning earlier this year, made the
comment in a telephone call which he made to Mr Bush, news channels
CNN Turk and NTV reported.
The Bush administration opposes the resolution on the events in
1915 as the Ottoman Empire broke apart, but the US Congress is now
dominated by the Democratic Party and has become more influenced by
the Armenian diaspora.
Turkey is a key NATO ally of Washington and a moderate Muslim country
whose support it needs in the region as it fights Iraqi insurgents
and confronts Iran over its nuclear program.
A senior Turkish lawmaker has also warned previously that Ankara
could consider restricting the US military’s use of Incirlik air base,
a logistics hub for the Middle East, if the Bill is passed.
Turkey has already sent delegations to the US in a bid to halt the
resolution.
Turkish media reported today that the bill would be taken up by
Congress’s Foreign Relations Committee on October 10.
Turkey denies a systematic genocide of Armenians took place, saying
large numbers of Christian Armenians and Muslim Turks died in
inter-ethnic fighting as the Ottoman Empire collapsed during WWI.