GENOCIDE VOTE WILL DAMAGE US-TURKEY RELATIONS, SAYS GENERAL
C Onur Ant in Istanbul

The Guardian
Monday October 15, 2007

Turkey’s top general has warned that military ties with the US will
be irreversibly damaged if the US Congress passes a resolution that
labels the first world war killings of Armenians a genocide.

General Yasar Buyukanit told Turkey’s Milliyet newspaper that a
congressional committee’s approval of the measure had strained ties
between the two countries.

"If this resolution passed in the committee passes the House as
well, our military ties with the US will never be the same again,"
he told Milliyet.

Turkey, which is a major cargo hub for US and allied military forces
in Iraq and Afghanistan, has recalled its ambassador to Washington for
consultations and warned that there might be a cut in the logistical
support to the US over the issue.

About 70% of US air cargo headed for Iraq goes through Turkey as does
about a third of the fuel used by the US military there. US bases also
get water and other supplies carried in overland by Turkish truckers
who cross into Iraq’s northern Kurdish region.

Despite the general’s strong words and the recalling of its ambassador,
it is not clear just how far the Turkish side can go in expressing
its dismay to Washington.

Turkey suspended its military ties with France last year after the
French parliament’s lower house adopted a bill that would have made
it a crime to deny that the Armenian killings constituted a genocide.

But there is more at stake for Nato’s only Muslim member when it comes
to Turkey-US relations. The Turkish military is heavily dependent on
the American defence industry, experts say.

However, the country’s former permanent representative to Nato, Onur
Oymen, said Turkey has limited the activities of US troops in Turkey
in the past.

When Washington imposed an arms embargo against Ankara in 1975 because
of a dispute over Cyprus, Turkey ended all its logistical support to
US troops until the embargo was lifted, Oymen said.

On Saturday US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, "urged restraint"
from Turkey and sent two high-ranking officials to Ankara in an
apparent attempt to ease fury over the measure, which could be voted
on by the House of Representatives by the end of the year.