Ankara recalls envoy from U.S.

October 12, 2007

By Nicholas Kralev – Turkey temporarily recalled its ambassador to
Washington yesterday in a standard diplomatic protest against a
resolution adopted by a House committee this week that branded mass
killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks beginning in 1915 as genocide.

The measure, which the White House opposes, was approved by the House
Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday, and House Speaker Nancy
Pelosi, California Democrat, said a floor vote will be called by
mid-November.

Ambassador Nabi Sensoy was ordered back to Ankara for a week to 10
days, said Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Levent Bilman.

"We are not withdrawing our ambassador. We have asked him to come to
Turkey for some consultations," he said. "The ambassador was given
instructions to return and will come at his earliest convenience."

The State Department played down the significance of the move, with
one official calling it a "fairly limited response" to the House
resolution. "I would have been surprised if they hadn’t done it," he
said.

U.S. officials also indicated that they had no intention of recalling
the American ambassador in Ankara, Ross Wilson. They said the Turkish
government understood the Bush administration is working hard to make
sure the vote in the full House fails.

Mr. Sensoy’s recall "certainly will not do anything to limit our
efforts to continue to reach out to Turkish officials, to explain our
views, to engage them on this issue and again to make clear that we
intend to work on this with Congress," State Department spokesman Tom
Casey said.

The House measure, though nonbinding, came at a sensitive time for
U.S.-Turkish relations. The Bush administration is worried about the
intention of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to seek
parliamentary approval to send troops across the border into Iraq to
hunt down Kurdish rebels as soon as next week.

Turkish President Abdullah Gul yesterday denounced the House committee
vote as "unacceptable," and Mr. Erdogan warned of more severe
consequences for Ankara’s relations with Washington if the resolution
is passed by the full House.

About 70 percent of U.S. air cargo destined for Iraq and one-third of
the fuel used by the U.S. military there goes through Turkey, a NATO
ally. Turkish truckers crossing into northern Iraq also provide water
and other supplies to the Americans in the U.S. bases there.

"Access to airfields 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," Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates
said Wednesday.

Armenian President Robert Kocharian welcomed the vote yesterday,
saying: "We hope this process will lead to a full recognition by the
United States of America … of the genocide."

At least 1.5 million Armenians were killed from 1915 to 1923 under an
Ottoman Empire campaign of deportation and killings, according to
Armenians. Turkey strongly denies genocide was committed, though it
acknowledges that as many as 500,000 Armenians and a similar number of
Turks died in strife after Armenians took up arms for independence.

– This article is based in part on wire service reports

Source: REIGN/110120057/1003