TURKEY DISMAYED AT US VOTE ON ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
By Lucia Kubosova

EUobserver.com, Belgium
Oct 11 2007

Turkey’s leaders have condemned a non-binding resolution passed on
Wednesday (10 October) by a US congress committee recognising the
1915-17 Armenian killings by Ottoman Turks as genocide.

"This unacceptable decision of the committee, like similar ones in
the past, is not regarded by the Turkish people as valid or of any
value," Turkish president Abdullah Gul said in reaction to the vote
in the House Foreign Affairs Committee by 27 votes to 21.

According to Anatolian news agency, he suggested that some US
politicians had "closed their ears to calls to be reasonable and once
again sought to sacrifice big problems for small domestic political
games."

After the committee vote, the bill can move ahead towards a debate
and vote in the House of Representatives, amid strong opposition by
the White House.

"We all deeply regret the tragic suffering of the Armenian people,"
US president George W. Bush reacted, adding "This resolution is not
the right response to these mass killings," Bloomberg reported.

Congress’ move comes at a difficult time for US-Turkey relations,
with Ankara considering whether to approve a cross border operation
in northern Iraq in order to chase down Kurdish PKK separatists.

Turkey’s government is under domestic pressure to act following a
series of attacks by separatists against Turkish soldiers which led
to 30 casualties in less than two weeks.

On the other hand, Washington is urging it to prevent unilateral
action as it could further harm the fragile situation in Iraq.

The US administration also fears that a public backlash in Turkey,
as the American key NATO ally, could lead to restrictions on other
crucial joint operations, such as in Afganistan, or the closure of
Incirlik, an air base in Turkey used by the US Air Force.

Similar calls in Europe The US genocide resolution echoes some similar
initiatives previously made in Europe.

France’s National Assembly last October approved a socialist-drafted
proposal which stated that those denying the genocide should be
punished by one year in prison and pay a fine of ~@45,000.

But the bill was all but dropped as a result of a political decision
by the ruling centre-right. This meant it was not pushed forward
for a vote in the country’s senate before the previous parliament
got re-elected.

Shortly ahead of the French vote, the European Parliament’s foreign
affairs committee voted in favour of a report suggesting Turkey
should recognize the Armenian genocide as a condition for its EU
accession. The request was later dropped, however.

The controversial dispute centres around the claim by Armenia that
Ottoman Turks in 1915 killed an estimated 1.5 million of its citizens –
something Turkey has always strongly denied.