REJECT ARMENIAN ‘GENOCIDE’ RESOLUTION: BUSH
CTV.ca, Canada
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Oct 10 2007
The White House is urging Congress to reject legislation that would
classify the First World War-era killings of Armenians as genocide.
"This resolution is not the right response to these historic mass
killings," U.S. President George Bush told reporters Wednesday.
The comments follow a meeting Bush held with Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
Rice and Gates issued a joint appeal earlier Wednesday, hours before
the House Foreign Affairs Committee was to vote on the issue.
"This is not to ignore what was a really terrible situation and we
recognize the feelings of those who want to express their concern
and their disdain for what happened many years ago," Rice said.
"But the passage of this resolution at this time would indeed be
very problematic for everything we are trying to do in the Middle
East because we are very dependent on a good Turkish strategic ally
to help with our efforts," she said.
The basic dispute surrounds the 1915 massacres of up to 1.5 million
Armenians by Ottoman Turks — widely viewed by scholars as the first
genocide of the 20th century.
Turkey denies that the event was genocide, claiming the toll has been
inflated and that the deaths were the result of civil war and unrest.
Turkish officials are warning that the move could damage relations
between the two countries. The U.S. military uses Turkey, a NATO ally,
as a major portal for operations in Iraq.
"I have been trying to warn the (U.S.) lawmakers not to make a historic
mistake," said Egemen Bagis, a close foreign policy adviser to Turkish
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Seventy per cent of U.S. air cargo destined for Iraq flows through
Turkey as does about a third of fuel used by the military in Iraq,
Gates said Wednesday.
"Access to air fields and to the roads and so on in Turkey would very
much be put at risk if this resolution passes and Turkey reacts as
strongly as we believe they will," Gates said.
Gates also said that 95 per cent of the new Mine Resistant Ambush
Protected vehicles are flying through Turkey to get to Iraq.
The U.S. Embassy in Ankara warned U.S. citizens in Turkey Wednesday of
"demonstrations and other manifestations of anti-Americanism" if the
bill is approved.
If the House Foreign Affairs Committee passes the legislation, House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi could then decide to bring it to a vote before
the full House of Representatives.
Many Democrats in the Democrat-controlled Congress support the
resolution.
Meanwhile, reports emerged Wednesday that Turkey began shelling
suspected Kurdish rebel camps in Northern Iraq.
The U.S. opposes the action, fearing a new war front in the most
stable part of the country.
The Turkish government is currently seeking parliamentary approval
to conduct a cross-border military operation in the region.