PRESIDENT BUSH PRESSES LEGISLATORS TO BLOCK ARMENIAN GENOCIDE BILL: STRESSES SUCH MOVE WOULD DO GREAT HARM TO U.S.-TURKEY RELATIONS
Annabella Bulacan – AHN News Writer
AHN News
84987
Oct 10 2007
Washington, DC (AHN) – President George Bush on Wednesday urged
Congress to block the passage of a resolution declaring the massacre of
Armenian in the Ottoman Empire to be branded as "genocide", further
citing that failure to do so would take its toll on U.S.-Turkey
relations.
Mr. Bush sounded this alarm prior to the scheduled voting of the House
Foreign Affairs Committee on this issue stemming from alleged disputes
in Anatolia (now eastern Turkey) that resulted to the massacre of
some 1.5 million Armenians between 1915-17.
"This resolution is not the right response to these historic mass
killings.Such a move would do "great harm" to U.S. Relations with
Turkey," the BBC News quoted Mr. Bush as saying.
Armenians claimed that the mass killing was indeed an organized
campaign to force them out of the said territory. Turkey however
downplayed such allegations, noting that millions of Turks and
Armenians died due to compounded chaos surrounding World War I and
the eventual fall of the Ottoman Empire.
The killings that happened almost a century ago remains a debatable
issue up to the present time with the powerful Armenian diaspora,
and their aggressive stance to get full backing of different quarters
who would recognize those events as genocide.
In 2006 , the lower house of the French parliament declared the
killings a genocide.
But on the side of the U.S. Congress, President Bush maintained
his opposition to genocide resolution and expressed hope that the
legislators would heed his call.
In a recent interview, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the
passing of the resolution would be "very problematic" for US policy
in the Middle East.
She added that such move would have ill effects in the U.S. efforts
in Iraq and Afghanistan since Turkey is a considered a focal point
of military operations in the region.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
