EMBASSY ROW: DENOUNCED IN TURKEY
James Morrison

Washington Times, DC
Nov 2 2007

Weeks before Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced plans
to visit Turkey to try to defuse a diplomatic crisis created over a
congressional resolution, the U.S. ambassador there was already well
aware of the damage done to U.S.-Turkish relations.

Ambassador Ross Wilson issued a public statement that dropped all
pretense of diplomatic subtleties to denounce the resolution, which
accuses the Ottoman Turkish Empire of genocide against Armenians in
World War I.

The resolution, which passed the House Foreign Affairs Committee,
outraged the Turkish republic, which succeeded the Ottomans. Turkish
political leaders are facing domestic pressure to deny the United
States use of an air base for supplying troops in Iraq and to unleash
cross-border military operations against Kurdish terrorists in
northern Iraq.

"The president, Secretary Rice, other administration officials and I
all categorically oppose House Resolution 106," Mr. Wilson said last
month. "I deeply regret the decision by the House Foreign Affairs
Committee to send this resolution forward for a vote by the entire
House. … I sincerely hope the resolution will not be passed and will
continue my efforts to convince members of Congress not to approve it."

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California delayed further action
on the resolution after encountering a growing backlash among her
fellow Democrats.

Miss Rice is scheduled to meet today with President Abdullah Gul and
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the capital, Ankara. Mr. Erdogan
is due to meet with President Bush in Washington on Monday.