TURKEY SEEKS TO AVERT GENOCIDE VOTE IN US CONGRESS
By Suzan Fraser

(AP) The Associated Press
March 3, 2010
Ankara, Turkey

Turkey expresses hope US administration will intervene to stop
genocide resolution

Turkey’s foreign minister said Wednesday he hopes the Obama
administration will try to prevent a U.S. congressional panel from
recognizing the World War I-era killings of Armenians by Ottoman
Turks as genocide.

Ahmet Davutoglu told Turkish reporters during a visit to Egypt that
he expects "the U.S. administration to give the necessary message"
to the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee,
according to the state-run Anatolia news agency.

"If it passes, then the Obama administration should try to prevent
it from being voted by Congress," Anatolia quoted Davutoglu as saying.

The House committee is set to consider the issue Thursday. A "yes"
vote would allow the resolution to be considered by the full House.

Historians estimate up to 1.5 million Armenians were victims of
genocide by Ottoman Turks. Turkey denies that.

Past U.S. administrations have blocked similar resolutions
through public cajoling about U.S. national security interests and
behind-the-scenes lobbying. The Obama administration, however, has
not taken any public position on the issue so far.

Turkey warned this week that recognition of the killings as genocide
would not only damage ties with its longtime U.S. ally but also hurt
U.S.-led efforts to end a century of enmity between Turkey and Armenia.

Turkey, NATO’s only Muslim member, is a key supply route for U.S.

troops in Iraq and part of the U.S.-led coalition forces in
Afghanistan.

Turkey and Armenia last year took steps to normalize ties by
establishing diplomatic relations and reopening their shared border.

The agreements still need to be ratified by both countries’
parliaments, and it is unclear how they would resolve the bitter
dispute over the Armenian deaths.

Turkey acknowledges that many Armenians were killed around World War
I, but denies that the deaths constituted genocide. Turkey says the
death toll has been inflated and that those killed were victims of
civil war and unrest.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress