International Herald Tribune, France
Oct 12 2007
Likely passage of Armenian genocide resolution reflects White House
weakness
The Associated PressPublished: October 11, 2007
WASHINGTON: For years Turkey has managed to prevent U.S. lawmakers
from adopting resolutions declaring atrocities against Armenians more
than 90 years ago. Now, at a time when the United States needs Turkey
more than ever, supporters of the measure are on the verge of winning
its passage.
The reason for the timing has to do with the current weakness of
President George W. Bush, who opposed the measure, and the new power
of Democratic leaders in the House of Representatives, who have
supported it.
It is now up to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to decide whether and when
to schedule a vote in the full House. She said Thursday the proposal
would be brought to a vote this year.
Pelosi, who assumed the most powerful job in the House when her
Democrats took power in January, comes from a voting district in
California with a sizable Armenian population and publicly backed the
measure long before she became leader of the House.
"I’ve been in Congress for 20 years, and for 20 years people have
been saying the same thing" about the timing being bad, she said.
Turkey was seen as having a strategic location during the Cold War as
well as the 1991 Persian Gulf War and the current Iraq war.
"Why do it now? Because there’s never a good time, and all of us in
the Democratic leadership have supported" it, she said.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee cleared the way for a vote in the
full House by approving the measure Wednesday.
At issue is the killing of up to 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman
Turks around the time of World War I, an event widely viewed by
genocide scholars as the first genocide of the 20th century. Turkey
denies that the deaths constituted genocide, saying the toll has been
inflated, and those killed were victims of civil war and unrest that
killed Muslims as well as the overwhelmingly Christian Armenians.
Congress frequently passes similar nonbinding "sense of the Congress"
resolutions, often on historical matters. Few provoke such angry
responses abroad or as much lobbying in Washington as this measure.
The administration kept up the pressure on Thursday.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice offered House members a classified briefing to spell out what
they called "national security interests" at stake. Top military
leaders including Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs
of Staff, telephoned congressional offices to describe potential
repercussions for passage.
In a letter, Gates and Rice reminded Pelosi, that Turkey canceled
contracts with the French military after France’s national assembly
condemned the Turks’ role in the Armenian deaths.
"A similar reaction by the elected government of Turkey to a House
resolution could harm American troops in the field, constrain our
ability to supply our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and
significantly damage our efforts to promote reconciliation between
Armenia and Turkey at a key turning point in their relations," Rice
and Gates said in the letter reviewed by the Associated Press.
They urged Pelosi not to allow a vote on the resolution.
Turkey has been working for months to persuade lawmakers of that
course of action. Ankara has hinted that it would even consider
shutting down supply routes through Turkey to Iraq that are crucial
to U.S. military operations.
On Thursday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Levent Bilman said the
ambassador to Washington, Nabi Sensoy, was being recalled for
consultations. Also, the U.S. ambassador to Turkey, Ross Wilson, was
invited to the Foreign Ministry and was told by Turkish officials of
their "unease" about the resolution.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was considering a list of
possible responses to the United States that he could make public in
coming days, according to a senior Turkish official, who spoke on
condition of anonymity because he had not been authorized to talk
about the issue.
When asked earlier if Turkey would shut down Incirlik, a strategic
air base in Turkey used by the U.S. Air Force for operations in Iraq,
Erdogan replied: "You don’t talk about such things; you just do
them."
The threats of such repercussions have caused the Bush administration
to go all out to influence lawmakers and soothe the Turks. Senior
officials have been warning for months against passage, and hours
before Wednesday’s vote, Rice, Gates and the president went before
cameras to warn against passing the resolution.
But Bush, bogged down in Iraq and with approval ratings at home stuck
at about 30 percent, has little political capital to spend.
Even after the administration’s concerted anti-resolution drive, the
committee voted 27-21 Wednesday in favor of the measure, which even
included eight of the president’s fellow Republicans in open
defiance.
One of the committee members who said he was called by Bush is Puerto
Rico’s delegate, Luis Fortuno, who told Puerto Rican media on
Thursday that he was surprised to hear Bush on his telephone. As a
representative of the U.S. commonwealth, Fortuno has no vote on the
House floor but can participate in committee votes.
"Usually, these calls are coordinated," Fortuno said, "but this was a
call to my cell phone, and I take it. It was him, talking in Spanish;
in other words, this is not the norm."