BUSH AGAINST TURKISH GENOCIDE RESOLUTION
Jon Ward, White House correspondent, The Washington Times
Washington Times, DC
Oct 10 2007
President Bush added his voice this morning to the chorus of protest
against a House resolution that would declare the Turkish government
to have committed genocide during the First World War.
"I urge members to oppose the Armenian genocide resolution now being
considered by the House Foreign Affairs Committee," Mr. Bush said,
speaking to reporters on the South Lawn driveway, yards away from
the presidential putting green.
"We all deeply regret the tragic suffering of the Armenian people
that began in 1915," Mr. Bush said.
But he added that "this resolution is not the right response to these
historic mass killings."
The Armenian National Institute estimates that around 1.5 million
Armenians were killed at the hands of the Turks or died due to the
Turkish persecution between 1915 and 1923.
The Turkish government refuses to acknowledge its actions as genocide,
and U.S. officials expect that the Turks would close off access to
its air bases, which are a crucial part of the U.S.
military’s resupply routes into Iraq and Afghanistan.
Mr. Bush said the resolution’s passage "would do great harm to our
relations with a key ally in NATO and in the global war on terror."