US relations with Turkey at risk

By Daniel Dombey in Washington

Published: October 7 2007 21:29 | Last updated: October 7 2007 21:29

The Bush administration has warned that Washington’s relations with
Turkey could be endangered and US troops in Iraq put at risk because
of congressional legislation that denounces the mass killings of
Armenians more than 80 years ago as genocide.

The bill, which will be put to the House of Representatives foreign
affairs committee on Wednesday, enjoys majority support and comes at a
time when ties between Washington and Ankara are under severe strain.

Turkey has launched a concerted effort to prevent passage of the bill,
warning of serious consequences for bilateral relations. Recep Tayyip
Erdogan, Turkey’s prime minister, called President George W. Bush on
Friday, and a delegation of Turkish MPs is in Washington to muster
support against the resolution.

Dan Fried, the state department’s top Europe official, said last week:
"We think it would do grave harm both to US-Turkish relations and to
US interests. It would hurt our forces deployed in Iraq, which rely on
passage through Turkey?.?.?.?We have to be mindful of how much we
depend and how much our troops and the Iraqi economy depend on
shipments from and through Turkey."

Eight former US secretaries of state ` including Colin Powell, Henry
Kissinger and Madeleine Albright ` have written to Nancy Pelosi, the
speaker of the House of Representatives, to ask her to prevent a vote
on the issue.

The bill has 226 co-sponsors. It calls on Mr Bush "to accurately
characterise the systematic and deliberate annihilation of 1.5m
Armenians as genocide". The massacres were carried out by Ottoman
troops beginning in 1915, before the creation of the republic of
Turkey. Turkey rejects characterisation of the deaths as genocide and
takes diplomatic and other measures against countries that adopt such
a stance.

Last year Ankara restricted military co-operation with France after
the French national assembly passed a bill that would criminalise
denial of the Armenian genocide. Turkey has not suggested it would
retaliate against the US if the bill is approved. But some
commentators suggest that, in extremis, Ankara could restrict US
access to Incirlik air base in southern Turkey, which the US uses to
supply its military forces throughout the Middle East.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007

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