ECONOMIC SANCTIONS COULD BACKFIRE, WARN ANALYSTS
By Hasmik Lazarian YEREVAN
Reuters, UK
Oct 26 2007
Armenia "surprised" at storm over genocide vote
(Reuters) – Armenia said on Friday it was "surprised" that concerns
about damaging U.S.-Turkish ties had been allowed to stall a
resolution recognizing as genocide the 1915 killings of Armenians
in Ottoman Turkey. Backers of the resolution in the U.S. Congress
said this week they would postpone plans to put it to a full vote
after a storm of criticism from U.S. ally Turkey — which denies the
killings were genocide — and from the White House. Armenian Foreign
Minister Vardan Oskanian told Reuters in an interview he believed
that Nancy Pelosi, the Democrat speaker of Congress, would still
put the resolution to a full vote. "We are far from disappointed,"
said Oskanian. "They tell me the resolution will be put to a full
vote at the right time. Speaker Pelosi has not pulled it. With
all such matters, timing is a political decision." But he added:
"We remain surprised that the U.S.-Turkey relationship is thought
to be so fragile that this non-binding resolution or other verbal
acknowledgements appear to pose a problem." U.S. President George
W. Bush has said the resolution, by angering Ankara, could hurt
Washington’s strategic interests because Turkey is a key military
ally in the Middle East region. The resolution was being debated just
as Washington is trying to persuade Turkey not to launch possible
military attacks into northern Iraq against Kurdish separatist
rebels. "WHAT RECONCILIATION?" Up to 1.5 million Armenians died
in massacres and mass expulsions in 1915. Armenia and the Armenian
Diaspora abroad — backed by many Western historians — say it was
genocide and want foreign states to recognize it as such. Turkey
accepts there were widespread killings, but says they did not amount
to genocide. A law in Turkey makes calling the deaths a genocide
a criminal offence. Government officials in Ankara have warned a
side-effect of the resolution will be to set back efforts to repair
relations between Armenia and Turkey. The border between the two
is closed and they have no diplomatic relations. Oskanian dismissed
this, and said Turkish offers of reconciliation were a sham. "Armenia
has been careful not to voice an opinion on the resolution. We have
maintained that this is a matter between those in the U.S. Congress
and their constituents," he said. "But when Turkey and its lobbyists
dragged us in, implying that such a resolution would hurt some
non-existent bilateral process between Armenia and Turkey, then we
spoke up." "We’ve held out our hand for more than a decade. Turkey has
kept the door shut tightly. Worse, Turkey has become more radical and
extreme in its denialist policies." After the Congressional Foreign
Affairs Committee approved the genocide resolution this month, Turkey
recalled its ambassador from Washington for consultations.