TURKEY SLAPS US OVER GENOCIDE BILL

Melbourne Herald Sun
Agence France-Presse
Oct 11 2007
Australia

TURKISH President Abdullah Gul has denounced as "unacceptable" the
endorsement of a measure branding as genocide the Ottoman massacres
of Armenians by a key US congressional committee.

"This unacceptable decision of the committee … has no validity
and respectability for the Turkish people," Mr Gul told the Anatolia
news agency.

The US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee defied
President George W. Bush today and approved the measure to recognise
the killings of Armenians during World War I as a genocide.

Mr Bush and other senior officials had made a last-minute push to
persuade politicians on the committee to reject the measure.

"Its passage would do great harm to our relations with a key ally
in NATO and in the global war on terror," Mr Bush said hours before
the vote.

Turkey is a key NATO ally that has provided support to US efforts
in Iraq.