Turkey warns U.S. not to pass Armenian genocide bill

The Associated Press
Sunday, October 7, 2007

ISTANBUL: The head of Parliament has warned the United States Congress
not to pass an Armenian genocide bill, saying in a letter to the House
speaker that the move would harm bilateral ties, his office said
Sunday.

The speaker of Parliament, Koksal Toptan, said in his letter to the
speaker, Nancy Pelosi, that "it might take decades to heal negative
effects" of the bill if it passed, Toptan’s office said in a
statement.

The bill would declare the killings of Armenians from 1915 to 1917 a
genocide, although it would have no binding effect on U.S. foreign
policy. The House Foreign Affairs Committee is expected to consider
the legislation this week.

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.

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

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

Armenians say more than 1.5 million of their people were killed in a
systematic genocide at the hands of the Ottoman Empire during World
War I, before the birth of modern Turkey, in 1923.

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

After France voted last year to make the denial of the 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.

Source: .php