TURKEY LAUNCHES LAST DITCH EFFORT TO PREVENT ARMENIAN RESOLUTION IN US

The New Anatolian, Turkey
Oct 8 2007

While Turkey has intensified diplomatic and political efforts to
dissuade the American Congress from passing an Armenian genocide bill
Turkish leaders are telling their American counterparts that such a
move will seriously hurt relations.

On Sunday Parliament Speaker Koksal Toptan sent a letter to U.S. House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi saying that "it might take decades to heal
negative effects of the bill if it passes," Toptan’s office said in
a statement.

Toptan – who is elected by the legislative body to chair parliamentary
sessions – is considered neutral toward all political parties.

The genocide bill declares the killings of Armenians between 1915
and 1917 a genocide, though it would have no binding effect on the
U.S. foreign policy. The U.S. House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs
Committee is expected to consider the legislation late Wednesday.

Toptan’s letter said the passing of the bill would be declared by
Armenians as a confirmation of their view of the historical dispute.

"Then, it will be difficult to control the dynamics triggered by
Turkish public reaction," it said.

Toptan said Armenia did not respond positively to Turkish proposal to
establish a commission of historians to examine Turkish and Armenian
archives and to share their findings with the public.

On Friday, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told U.S. President
George W. Bush that the measure would "harm the strategic partnership"
between the two countries.

Bush reassured Erdogan that he opposes efforts by US lawmakers to
denounce the Ottoman Empire’s killings of Armenians as genocide,
the White House said.

"The president reiterated his opposition to this resolution, the
passage of which would be harmful to US relations with Turkey,"
said Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for Bush’s National Security Council.

He recalled that Bush has described the events of 1915 as a tragedy,
but believes that determining whether it was genocide is up to
historians, not lawmakers, Johndroe said in a statement.

The House Foreign Affairs Committee is due to vote on the genocide
measure Wednesday. A similar bill is pending in the US Senate, adding
to pressure on the administration to recognize the Armenian deaths
not just as "forced exile and murder" – Bush’s words in 2004 – but as
genocide. Congressional sources say the fact that the house committee
is voting for the resolution means it has the blessing of Pelosi.

Meanwhile, a Turkish parliamentary delegation comprised of top foreign
policy experts will fly to Washington today to meet congressional
members to dissuade them from voting for the resolution.

"If the United States makes a historical error and adopts a resolution
on the incidents of 1915 in the House of Representatives, this would
be a problem and scandal of the U.S.," said Egemen Bagis, Deputy
Chairman of the ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party who will
be in the delegation.

Bagis told reporters that main opposition Republican People’s Party
(CHP) Istanbul deputy Sukru Elekdag and opposition Nationalist
Movement Party (MHP) Istanbul deputy Gunduz Aktan and he will pay a
visit to the United States to hold discussions with non-governmental
organizations, senators, members of the House of Representatives,
high level bureaucrats and academicians and try to explain to all
that the adoption of a resolution on the incidents of 1915 would be
a serious blow to Turkish-U.S. relations.

"We will do everything possible to defeat the Armenian resolution
which, if adopted, can hurt Turkish-U.S. relations and the national
interests of the U.S.," Bagis said.

Bagis, Elekdag and Aktan will be in the United States until October 11.

Elekdag is a former Turkish ambassador in Washington and a former
undersecretary of foreign affairs. Aktan is also from the foreign
ministry who served as deputy undersecretary. He is a retired
ambassador.

Meanwhile, in a full-page advertisement in the Washington Post, the
Turkish embassy to the US called the pending legislation "one-sided"
and warned it would "affect relations between the United States
and Turkey."

A senior State Department official said US lawmakers risk provoking
a severe backlash from Turkey.

Applying the genocide label would harm US interests, including
"our forces deployed in Iraq which rely on passage through Turkey,"
Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Fried said.

He said it was a historical fact that up to 1.5 million Armenians
were killed or forced into exile from 1915 through the early 1920 –
something recognized by Bush as well as former president Bill Clinton.

"But it is true that the Turkish reaction would be extremely strong,"
Fried told reporters.

Armenians claim say more than 1.5 million Armenians were killed in
a systematic genocide in the hands of the Ottomans during the World
War I, before modern Turkey was born in 1923.

Turkey says the death toll is inflated and that the deaths occurred
at a time of civil unrest.

Public opinion polls show that the United States has become widely
unpopular in Turkey because of opposition to U.S. policy in Iraq.

After France voted last year to make denial of Armenian genocide
a crime, the Turkish government ended military ties. A similar move
with the United States could have repercussions on operations in Iraq
and Afghanistan, which rely heavily on Turkish support.