TURKEY LASHES BACK AT THE GENOCIDE VOTE
By Pelin Turgut
TIME Magazine
Oct 11 2007
Turkey’s government has denounced a resolution approved by a U.S. House
of Representatives committee that calls the 1915 massacres of Armenians
by Ottoman Turks a genocide. The measure passed on Wednesday despite
extraordinary last-minute efforts by Bush administration officials,
including the President himself, to have it shelved out of concern that
it could hurt relations with a key NATO ally and affect U.S. troops
in Iraq. Seventy percent of American air cargo and a third of the
fuel the U.S. uses in neighboring Iraq passes through the its air
base in Incirlik in southern Turkey. Prior to the bill’s passage,
Turkish politicians had warned of possible retaliation by blocking
the use of Incirlik.
Hundreds of demonstrators picketed the U.S. embassy in Ankara just
before the vote. "A Bill of Hatred," ran the banner headline on the
top-selling Turkish newspaper Hurriyet. The non-binding measure,
which passed the House Foreign Affairs Committee by a vote of 27
to 21, will now be sent on to the full House. "Unfortunately, some
politicians in the United States have once again sacrificed important
matters to petty domestic politics despite all calls to common sense,"
said Turkish President Abdullah Gul.
For the Turkish government, "the timing of the vote is catastrophic,"
says prominent political commentator and columnist for Posta newspaper
Mehmet Ali Birand. It comes as Washington tries to persuade Turkey not
to launch a military operation into north Iraq to pursue separatist
Kurdish guerrillas who are based there and who have been staging
increasingly violent attacks in southeast Turkey. The U.S. is opposed
to any such move, fearful that it could disrupt Kurdish-controlled
north Iraq, the only relatively stable area in the country.
But the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is under huge
public pressure after several deadly attacks by Kurdish guerrillas in
the southeast that have killed 30 people in under two weeks. Members
of Turkey’s parliament are due to vote on allowing a cross-border
military incursion next week, and the military machine is already
preparing. "After the U.S. House vote, the Turkish public is going
to think tit for tat," says Birand. "This is going to strengthen the
nationalists, including the position of those people who want us to
invade north Iraq."
Despite its displeasure, however, Turkey’s government is unlikely to
make good on its threats to take retaliatory action against the U.S.
even if a resolution clears House. "The government is disinclined to
consider drastic moves like an embargo, or closing Incirlik," says
Birand. The real outcome of Wednesday’s bill may be to strengthen a
growing tide of ultra-nationalist isolationism in Turkey, fueled by
public perceptions of being unwanted by Europe (it is seeking to join
the E.U.) and ignored by the U.S. One recent victim was high-profile
Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, who was shot to death by
a teenager with links to nationalist groups. His son, Arat Dink,
and publisher Serkis Seropyan were sentenced on Friday to one year
in jail for "insulting Turkishness" by referring to the Armenian
genocide. They will appeal the verdict.
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