PROTEST AT US BILL BRANDING TURKISH PAST AS ‘GENOCIDAL’

Evening Echo, Ireland
Oct 11 2007

Turks took to the streets today in protest at an American decision
to continue with a bill which describes the 90-year-old mass killings
of Armenians as genocide.

Despite intense lobbying by Turkish officials and opposition by
President Bush, the House Foreign Affairs Committee passed the bill
by a 27-21 vote.

Mr Bush had warned that it could harm US-Turkish relations, which
are already tense with Turkey considering a military offensive into
Iraq against Kurdish rebels. The US fears that could destabilise one
of the few relatively peaceful areas in the country.

At the centre of the issue is a claim that up to 1.5 million Armenians
were killed in a systematic genocide between 1915-17, before modern
Turkey was born in 1923.

Turkey says the killings occurred at a time of civil unrest as the
Ottoman Empire was falling apart, and that the numbers are inflated.

"Unfortunately, some politicians in the US have once again sacrificed
important matters to petty domestic politics despite all calls to
common sense," Turkey’s President Gul said after the US vote.

Mr Bush had urged Congress to reject the legislation, and Secretary
of State Condoleezza Rice and Defence Secretary Robert Gates also
expressed concern.

Passing the measure "at this time would be very problematic for
everything we are trying to do in the Middle East," Ms Rice said
hours before the vote.

The US Embassy in Ankara meanwhile urged Americans to be alert for
possible violence after the vote.

US Ambassador Ross Wilson said he regretted the committee’s decision,
and said he hoped it would not be passed by the House.