The Courier Mail (Australia)
October 13, 2007 Saturday
First with the news Edition
Genocide vote has Turkey fuming
by Paul De Bendern IN ANKARA
TURKEY recalled its US ambassador for consultation yesterday after a
vote in a US congressional committee had branded killings of
Armenians by Ottoman Turks genocide.
”We called back our ambassador to Washington for consultations. It
should not be understood that we have pulled him back permanently,”
a senior Turkish diplomat told reporters.
The US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee approved on
Wednesday a resolution branding the killings during World War I as
genocide — a charge Turkey hotly denies.
Meanwhile Turkey’s Prime Minister will ask his Parliament next week
to authorise a military push into north Iraq to fight Kurdish rebels
although analysts say a large Turkish cross-border incursion remains
unlikely.
Washington fears an offensive could destabilise Iraq’s most peaceful
area and potentially the wider region.
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan was under mounting pressure to act over
the rebels after Wednesday’s US vote on the highly sensitive issue of
the killings in 1915 of Armenians.
Mr Erdogan’s government will seek authorisation for a military
incursion after a public holiday which ends on Sunday, senior ruling
AK Party legislator Sadullah Ergin said.
Mr Ergin said the resolution could go to Parliament, where the AK
Party has a large majority, after a cabinet meeting on Monday.
The US relies heavily on Turkish bases to supply its
war effort in Iraq.
Any Turkish offensive into neighbouring northern Iraq would seriously
strain ties with Washington and hurt Turkey’s European Union bid.