DefenseNews.com
Oct 12 2007

Turkish Official: U.S.-Turkey Ties in Danger

By UMIT ENGINSOY, WASHINGTON

The U.S.-Turkish relationship is on the brink of a crisis because of
a U.S. congressional panel’s move to recognize World War I-era
killings of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire as genocide, and because
of attacks by northern Iraq-based separatist Kurdish militants on
Turkish targets, Turkey’s prime minister said Oct. 12.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in Ankara that Turkey was ready to pay the
price of a serious worsening of ties with the U.S., implying that the
country may send its army to northern Iraq to fight the Kurdish
militants and would retaliate strongly to the congressional panel’s
Armenian genocide recognition decision.
The Foreign Affairs Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives
Oct. 10 voted 27-21 in favor of the genocide measure despite heavy
lobbying by President George W. Bush’s Republican administration to
stop the resolution.
With the Democratic Party involved in a fight against Bush’s
policies, Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Oct. 11
that she would bring the bill to a full House floor vote before
Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 22. Backers of the genocide resolution have
enough votes to pass the resolution in a floor vote.
Bush, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary
Robert Gates have warned that the measure’s passage will hurt the
wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and Washington’s efforts in the Middle
East, where Turkey is a major player. More than 70 percent of
logistical support to U.S. forces in Iraq goes through Turkey.
Separately, the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which Turkey, the
United States and the European Union view as a terrorist group, has
killed more than 30 people since late September, including Turkish
troops and civilians, in attacks from bases in neighboring northern
Iraq, prompting Turkey to raise warnings of an incursion. Washington
is against any Turkish military intervention on Iraqi territory.