US WARNS OF TURKISH REPRISALS AS ARMENIA ‘GENOCIDE’ VOTE LOOMS

Agence France Presse
Oct 10 2007

WASHINGTON (AFP) – A bid by US lawmakers to label the Ottoman massacre
of Armenians a "genocide" will trigger Turkish reprisals and undermine
Iraq, Afghanistan and Middle East peace, the administration warned
Wednesday.

President George W. Bush and his top lieutenants were unusually
blunt in attacking what is a non-binding resolution in the House
of Representatives, highlighting anxiety over the impact on a key
diplomatic and military alliance.

Bush said the resolution would do "great harm" to ties with Turkey,
a Muslim-majority member of NATO whose territory is a crucial transit
point for US supplies bound for Iraq and Afghanistan.

"This resolution is not the right response to these historic mass
killings; its passage would do great harm to our relations with a
key ally in NATO and in the global war on terror," the president said
outside the White House.

In a joint appearance following talks with Bush, Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates also denounced
the measure as the House Foreign Affairs Committee convened for debate
later Wednesday.

Rice said she sympathized with Armenians’ fate during World War I,
when according to the Armenians, 1.5 million of their kinsmen died
in systematic deportations and killings under the Ottoman Empire.

"But the passage of this resolution at this time would, indeed, be
very problematic for everything that we’re trying to do in the Middle
East because we are very dependent on a good Turkish strategic ally
for this," she said.

The House resolution, which has a parallel measure in the Senate
pipeline, would be "very destabilizing for our efforts in Iraq and
Afghanistan," Rice added.

Rejecting the genocide label, Turkey argues that 250,000 to 500,000
Armenians and at least as many Turks died in civil strife when
Armenians took up arms for independence in eastern Anatolia during
World War I.

Turkey has already warned that passage of the House resolution
could force it to bar the United States from a key military base in
its south.

Gates said that about 70 percent of all Iraq-bound US air cargo,
95 percent of tough new mine-resistant vehicles and one-third of the
military’s fuel transit through Turkey.

US commanders "believe, clearly, that access to airfields and to
the roads and so on in Turkey would be very much put at risk if this
resolution passes and the Turks react as strongly as we believe they
will," he said.

In a letter Tuesday to Bush, new Turkish President Abdullah Gul
"drew attention to the serious problems that will emerge in bilateral
relations if the bill is adopted."

But the measure has strong backing in the House, where the Armenians’
wartime plight has been likened to the Nazi Holocaust against the Jews.

The resolution authored by Democratic Representative Adam Schiff, whose
California district contains the country’s largest ethnic-Armenian
community, has won the backing of at least 226 co-sponsors in the
435-seat House.

"The United States has a compelling historical and moral reason to
recognize the Armenian genocide, which cost a million and a half
people their lives," Schiff said.

"But we also have a powerful contemporary reason as well — how can
we take effective action against the genocide in Darfur if we lack
the will to condemn genocide whenever and wherever it occurs?" he said.

The resolution says the World War I killings of Armenians was a
"genocide" that should be acknowledged fully in US foreign policy
towards Turkey, along with "the consequences of the failure to realize
a just resolution."

As the House vote has loomed, the US administration has deployed a
phalanx of top officials to cajole members into line for fear of the
impact on relations with a prickly but pivotal ally in the restive
Middle East.

Late last month, all eight former US secretaries of state still alive
wrote to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi urging her to withdraw her support
of the genocide measure.

Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian responded that it was
"quite unfortunate that eight experienced diplomats would buy into
Turkish manipulation."