RICE, GATES: MIDDLE EAST AIR CARGO ROUTES IN JEOPARDY
Jon Ward, White House correspondent, The Washington Times

Washington Times, DC
Oct 10 2007

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Defense Robert
Gates walked out of the White House at about 10:15 a.m. and said that
a resolution being considered in the House this morning would imperil
U.S. resupply routes into Iraq and Afghanistan.

The House Foreign Affairs Committee is set to vote on a resolution
to label as genocide the deaths of Armenians at the hands of Turkey
soldiers in 1915, which prompted a meeting between President Bush,
Miss Rice and Mr. Gates.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat, is helping to drive
the measure, but Miss Rice and Mr. Gates said such a resolution would
so anger the Turkish government that they could cut off access to
Turkish airfields.

"About 70 percent of all air cargo going into Iraq goes through
Turkey. About a third of the fuel that [U.S. troops] consume comes
from Turkey," Mr. Gates said.

Mr. Gates said that U.S. military commanders raised concerns about the
resolution because "they believe clearly that access to air fields
and to 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."

Miss Rice said that the military commanders "asked us to do everything
we could to make sure this does not pass."

"This is not because the United States fails to recognize the terrible
tragedy of 1915, the mass killings that took place there," Miss Rice
said. "The passage of this resolution at this time would indeed be
problematic for everything that 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."

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress