Turkey recalls ambassador after US vote on Armenian ‘genocide’

The Independent
By David Barchard in Ankara

Published: 12 October 2007

Turkey recalled its ambassador from Washington last night in repsonse
to a US Congressional decision to label the First World War-era
killings of Armenians as genocide.

Despite intense lobbying by Turkey and a last-gasp intervention by the
US President George Bush, the House Foreign Affairs Committee passed
the bill on Wednesday by a 27-21 vote – in a move seen as an insult by
most Turks.

Turkey’s Foreign ministry said the ambassador would return to Turkey
for a stay of "a week or 10 days". "We are not withdrawing our
ambassador," said a ministry spokesman Levent Bilman. "We have asked
him to come to Turkey for some consultations."

In a statement yesterday, the Turkish government condemned the vote:
"It is not possible to accept such an accusation of a crime which was
never committed by the Turkish nation".

"27 foolish Americans," ran the front page of the Turkish daily Vatan,
in reference to legislators who voted in favour of the bill. Hurriyet
called the resolution a "Bill of hatred".

President Abdullah Gül said: "Unfortunately, some politicians in the
US have once again sacrificed important matters to petty domestic
politics despite all calls to common sense."

Members of the left-wing Workers’ Party laid a black wreath in front
of the US Embassy building in Ankara and drew a crescent-and-star on
its wall in protest at the resolution.

The vote was a body-blow to attempts by politicians and diplomats
behind the scenes in Washington and Ankara to put Turkish-American
relations back on a normal footing. The two countries have been on bad
terms since March 2003 when a group of rebels in the ruling AKP
(Justice and Development Party) joined with the opposition to thwart
government attempts to get authority for Turkey to support the
invasion of Iraq from the north. A few months later, parliament
reversed its decision but by then the US was no longer interested in
support from the Turks.

Over the past three years, hard-line conservatives in the US
administration have not forgiven the Turks for not doing what the US
expects of an ally. Turkish public opinion, horrified by the nearby
violence in Iraq, has been equally uncomplimentary with TV dramas and
novels attacking the US enjoying an enthusiastic reception.

Yet in both countries, many politicians have been searching for ways
to mend the damage, believing that the two countries need each other.
Both Mr Gül, while serving as Foreign minister, and the Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan have made several visits to Washington.

Apart from leading to a squeeze on US use of the Incirlik base in
Turkey and air and surface transit, the resolution could open the way
for a Turkish military incursion into Iraq to halt PKK attacks on
targets in south-east Turkey creating confrontation between Turkey and
the US.

Sixteen Turkish soldiers have died in the past week in south-east
Turkey as a result of PKK attacks. Several hundred more have been
killed since the US-led invasion of Iraq which was followed by a
revival of the PKK’s fortunes.

Against this background, the resolution could be the straw which broke
the camel’s back for Turkish-US relations. There are several strands
to the Turkish refusal to tolerate even a non-binding Congressional
resolution. They include national resentment at what is seen as a
climate of institutional prejudice against Turkey in Western
societies; anger at the assassination of more than 40 Turkish
diplomats by Armenians in the 1970s and 1980s; the expulsion of
800,000 to 1 million Azerbaijani Muslims from their homes in the
Caucasus in the 1990s by Armenian nationalist forces; and suspicion
that compensation claims may follow some day. Around half of Turkey’s
population are the descendants of Muslims forced out of what are now
Christian lands and regard Western partiality for Armenians as
outrageous.

Attitudes are unlikely to soften. News of the vote coincided with
reports that two Turkish Armenians, Arat Dink and Serkis Seropian, had
been given one-year suspended jail sentences in in Istanbul for
"belittling Turkishness" in an Istanbul Armenian-language newspaper.

Mr Erdogan’s riposte to Washington has been to ask parliament for
powers to send Turkish troops into Iraq. If recent PKK attacks
continue, pressure to act will be hard to resist, not least since a
Turkish-US confrontation would be popular in parts of the Muslim world
as well as at home. Even if an incursion into Iraq can be avoided,
prospects for getting the Turkish-US partnership back into working
order look more distant than ever, a fact which will hamper Western
chances of restoring stability in the Middle East.

Source: 1.ece