TURKEY: WARNS US CONGRESS AGAINST ARMENIAN GENOCIDE BILL

rticles/eav030210.shtml
3/02/10

Turkish officials are cautioning that Ankara will jettison plans to
reconcile with Armenia if a US congressional committee endorses a
resolution to term Ottoman Turkey’s 1915 massacre of ethnic Armenians
as genocide. Ties with Washington would also suffer, they said.

The House Foreign Affairs Committee is scheduled to consider the
resolution on March 4. It calls for Washington to use the word
"genocide" in future references to the Ottoman-era horror, an event
that has hindered the normalization of Turkish-Armenian relations
for almost a century.

"We want to believe that members of the Committee on Foreign Affairs
are aware of the harm which would be done to Turkey-US relations and
efforts for peace and stability in [the] South Caucas[us]," Turkish
Foreign Ministry spokesman Burak â"~צzâ"~â~U~ ]gergin was quoted
on March 2 as saying by Turkish daily Today’s Zaman.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on March 1 that an
"incorrect move" by the US Congress would "torpedo" plans to normalize
plans between Turkey and Armenia, Today’s Zaman reported. [For
background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

In Yerevan, Armenian officials called on Ankara to stop trying to
influence US legislative deliberations. "We hope that Turkey will rid
itself of artificial complexes created by the Turkish side and that
we will be able to move forward in accordance with our understandings."

Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian said during a news
conference, referring to the Turkish-Armenian reconciliation process.