CAHIR: CONDEMNING TURKEY ISN’T A WISE IDEA
Bill Cahir

Penn Live
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Oct 23 2007

U.S. Rep. Charlie Dent ranks among House officials questioning the
judgment of Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the California Democrat who said she
was going to allow the full House to vote on a resolution condemning
the Armenian genocide at the hands of the Ottoman Turks between 1915
and 1923.

But blaming Pelosi may be a bit too coy.

The House Foreign Affairs Committee earlier this month approved the
genocide resolution, 27-21. The measure would urge President Bush to
ensure U.S. foreign policy acknowledges the ethnic cleansing campaign
that claimed the lives of roughly 1.5 million Armenians and resulted
in the deportation of 500,000 more.

Locally, Dent and U.S. Rep. Jim Gerlach in Pennsylvania, along with
U.S. Reps. Mike Ferguson and Rush Holt in New Jersey, have signed on
as co-sponsors of the House measure, H. Res. 106.

With Turkish troops and Kurdish rebels nearing a state of war, Dent
says he does not want to see the bipartisan measure brought to the
House floor.

"I support the intent of the resolution on Armenia, because I think
it’s important to recognize that there were terrible atrocities
committed against the Armenian people," Dent said. "But Speaker
Pelosi’s timing on this legislation is simply terrible, and for a
few reasons.

"First, Turkey is a major ally in the war against violent extremism,"
Dent said. "Second, Turkey has provided tremendous logistical support
for U.S. operations in the Middle East. And third, Turkey has a problem
with P.K.K. incursions in northern Iraq, and we do not want the Turks
invading the region and creating instability."

The Kurdistan Workers Party, or P.K.K., has killed 40 Turkish
soldiers in recent weeks. The P.K.K. has killed several thousand
Turkish security personnel and civilians in a conflict dating back
more than 20 years.

Kurdish terrorists took eight Turkish soldiers captive in a raid they
launched Sunday. Responding to public outrage, the Turkish Parliament
before Sunday’s provocation already had authorized military strikes
against Kurdish insurgents in Iraq.

"Political realities dictate that I have to be more concerned right
now with the events of 2007, as opposed to the horrible circumstances
that occurred in 1915," Dent said.

But House officials are a bit late coming to that discovery. The Oct.

10 vote in the Foreign Affairs Committee, along with the provocative
behavior of Kurdish militants, has thrown a series of sparks into a
powder-keg region rife with ethnic and religious tension.

Kurdish separatists who favor independence — who seek the creation
of a Kurdish state that would carve oil-rich Kirkuk from northeastern
Iraq and other lands from northwestern Iran and southeastern Turkey —
have their own reasons for favoring a broad regional war.

Members of the U.S. Congress have little or no justification
for promoting such a conflict, which would open up the bloodiest
front yet in the Iraq war and perpetuate the need for large-scale
U.S. deployments inside that country.

Turkey is a democratic ally in southwestern Asia and a member of
NATO. The United States is bound by treaty to defend Turkey if it
were attacked by a foreign power. Turkey is home to Incirlik Air Base,
the most important U.S. air installation in the region.

A sensible House might pass a resolution thanking Turkey for its
support in the war on terrorism. But is a sensible Congress what we
have today?

Bill Cahir covers New Jersey and Pennsylvania issues in Washington,
D.C., for The Express-Times.