TURKS RATTLED BY CONGRESS VOTE ON ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

London Greek News, United Kingdom
Oct 11 2007

The Democrat controlled Congress despite intense pressure from the
White House and the Turkish government has voted on Wednesday to
condemn the mass killings of Armenians in Turkey in World War I as
an act of genocide.

The vote by the House Foreign Relations Committee was a non-binding
and so largely symbolic, but its consequences could reach far beyond
bilateral relations and spill into the war in Iraq.

The New York Times stated "Turkish officials and lawmakers warned that
if the resolution was approved by the full House, they would reconsider
supporting the American war effort, which includes permission to ship
essential supplies through Turkey and northern Iraq."

President George Bush speaking before the vote on the South Lawn of the
White House pleaded with the Congress to not pass the resolution saying
"We all deeply regret the tragic suffering of the Armenian people that
began in 1915," Mr. Bush said in remarks that, reflecting official
American policy, carefully avoided the use of the word genocide. "This
resolution is not the right response to these historic mass killings,
and its passage would do great harm to our relations with a key ally
in NATO and in the global war on terror."

"The resolution, which was introduced early in the current session
of Congress and which has quietly moved forward over the last few
weeks, provoked a fierce lobbying fight that pitted the politically
influential Armenian-American population against the Turkish
government, which hired equally influential former lawmakers like
Robert L. Livingston, Republican of Louisiana, and Richard A.

Gephardt, the former Democratic House majority leader who backed a
similar resolution when he was in Congress." The New York Times.

The traditional preferential relationship enjoyed by Turkey in the US
dating back to the late Turgut Ozal with Ronald Reagan and George Bush,
agreeing to major US military installations in Turkey at Incirilik
and Diyakabir.

Appearing outside the West Wing after that meeting, Defense Secretary
Robert M. Gates noted that about 70 percent of all air cargo sent to
Iraq passed through or came from Turkey, as did 30 percent of fuel
and virtually all the new armored vehicles designed to withstand
mines and bombs.

"They believe clearly that access to airfields and to the roads and so
on in Turkey would be very much put at risk if this resolution passes
and the Turks react as strongly as we believe they will," Mr. Gates
said, referring to the remarks of General Petraeus and Mr. Crocker.

Turkish reactions to the vote in Congress has been a veiled threat,
that if the vote was passed and made law this would put at risk that
permission for US fighter planes and re-fuelling flights to take
place over Turkish airspace. France was "punished" by Turkey after
its Parliament passed legislation condemning the Armenian genocide
by pulling all military agreements and contracts with France.

The Associated Press has reported in Turkey, a fresh wave of violence
raised the specter of a Turkish raid into northern Iraq, something
the United States is strongly urging against. A policeman was killed
and six others were wounded in a bomb attack in the Kurdish city of
Diyarbakir in southeastern Turkey on Wednesday. In the town of Sirnak
Turkish warplanes and helicopters were attacking positions along the
southern border with Iraq that are suspected of belonging to Kurdish
rebels who have been fighting Turkish forces for years.

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