Tensions Rise in Turkey on Two Fronts
Envoy Is Recalled Over Vote on Hill; Iraq Action Looms
By Molly Moore and Robin Wright
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, October 12, 2007; A12
ISTANBUL, Oct. 11 — The Turkish government warned Thursday that a
congressional committee vote labeling the mass killings of Armenians
during the Ottoman Empire as genocide would "endanger relations" with
the United States, and it summoned its ambassador from Washington for
emergency consultations.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee vote on the Armenian deaths — one
of the most sensitive issues in Turkish politics and society — came
as Turkish officials said they were preparing to seek parliamentary
authority to launch a military assault across the border in Kurdish
northern Iraq in retribution for Kurdish rebel attacks that have
killed 29 Turkish soldiers, police and civilians in the past two
weeks.
U.S. officials said Thursday that rising tensions over both issues
could have far-reaching ramifications for American operations in Iraq:
A Turkish military attack in northern Iraq could create chaos in the
country’s only relatively stable region, and a Turkish threat to limit
U.S. access to its air bases and roads because of the congressional
vote could cripple supply lines to American forces in Iraq.
"The committee’s approval of this resolution was an irresponsible
move, which, at a greatly sensitive time, will make relations with a
friend and ally more difficult," the Turkish government said in a
statement.
President Abdullah Gul called Wednesday’s congressional vote
"unacceptable," adding, "Some politicians in the United States have
once again sacrificed important matters to petty domestic politics
despite all calls to common sense."
Turkish Ambassador Nabi Sensoy said he plans to leave Washington on
Friday or over the weekend. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Ankara
described the diplomatic recall as temporary.
"This is a serious thing," Sensoy said in an interview. "This is the
first time that an ambassador has been recalled in many years. We have
a sound, time-tested relationship, but these are unfortunate events
that put into danger the future of Turkish-U.S. relations."
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said his government
will probably present a resolution to parliament next week seeking
permission to conduct a cross-border assault into Iraq targeting
separatist guerrillas from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in the
aftermath of the recent attacks.
Turkey accuses Iraqi Kurds of providing refuge for separatist rebels
who have been waging a war for autonomy against Turkey since 1984.
Turkey’s top civilian and military authorities ordered the armed
forces to their highest state of alert Tuesday. The next day, Turkish
F-16 and F-14 fighter jets and Cobra helicopter gunships bombed
suspected PKK hideouts and escape routes in the mountainous border
regions, according to the Turkish Dogan news agency.
Iraqi civilians said Turkish artillery shells had landed inside Iraqi
territory, according to news reports from the border area.
Defense Minister Vecdi Gonul told reporters, "There is no need for
parliamentary authorization for a hot-pursuit operation" to chase
suspected PKK guerrillas. However, Iraq has denied Turkey permission
to conduct such raids.
Fifteen Turkish soldiers have been killed in the past five days:
Sunday, PKK fighters attacked an 18-member Turkish commando unit,
killing 13 of the soldiers in a gun battle near the border; two
Turkish soldiers were killed Monday in a booby-trap explosion. In
addition, a police officer was killed Wednesday in the southern
Turkish city of Diyarbakir. Last week, PKK gunmen raked a civilian bus
with automatic weapons fire, killing 13 civilians, including a
7-year-old boy. The Turkish news media have described the attacks as
the deadliest in more than a decade.
U.S. and European Union officials on Thursday urged Turkey not to send
its military into northern Iraq, and Iraqi officials warned of serious
consequences.
"If the Turkish troops decided to enter into Iraq’s Kurdistan
territories, their decision would be wrong and they would sustain
heavy casualties and material losses," Nozad Hadi, the Kurdish
governor in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil told AP Television News.
Turkey’s last major operation into Iraq was conducted in 1997, when
tens of thousands of troops and government-paid local civilians
attacked the north.
The Bush administration has scrambled to contain the damage from the
congressional vote. On Thursday, the White House described Turkey as a
"very important ally on terrorism" that the United States will
continue to "try to work with." Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
planned to speak with Turkish officials, including Erdogan, during a
scheduled flight to Moscow on Friday, State Department officials said.
Turkey acknowledges the deaths of tens of thousands of Armenians from
1915 to 1923 but argues that they occurred in fighting after the
Armenians allied themselves with Russian forces invading the Ottoman
Empire.
Armenian President Robert Kocharian said Thursday at a news conference
in Brussels that he hoped "this process will lead to the full
recognition by the U.S. of the fact of the Armenian genocide."
Also Thursday, the son of a journalist who was slain this year after
calling the massacre of Armenians "genocide" was found guilty of
insulting Turkey’s identity. He had republished his father’s
criticisms.
Arat Dink, the editor of Agos, an Armenian newspaper, and the paper’s
publisher, Serkis Seropyan, were each given one-year suspended
sentences for "insulting Turkishness," their attorney, Erdal Dogan,
told the Associated Press. Dogan added that the two were planning to
appeal the sentences.
Dink’s father was Hrant Dink, an ethnic Armenian journalist convicted
of the same charge. He had appealed the conviction when he was killed
in January by a Turkish youth.
Wright reported from Washington.
Source: le/2007/10/11/AR2007101101276.html?sub=AR