EYES ON WASHINGTON AHEAD OF VOTE ON ‘GENOCIDE’
Today’s Zaman
March 4 2010
Turkey
As a US House of Representatives committee is scheduled today to vote
on a resolution that would recognize the World War I-era killings of
Armenians by Ottoman Turks as genocide, all eyes in Ankara are fixed
on Washington.
Thus far there has been no signal received from the White House
concerning the administration’s position on the resolution, while
Turkey has clearly voiced its expectation that the US president exert
efforts to prevent passage of the resolution.
Although Ankara apparently doesn’t have high hopes of President Barack
Obama intervening in the issue at least at the committee level, Turkish
sources involved in the issue have suggested that the majority of
committee members are still undecided, which means there is a chance
the resolution will be rejected by the committee.
At the US State Department, speaking at a press briefing on Tuesday,
Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs Philip J. Crowley
preferred to recall Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s recent
remarks. Reiterating US support for ongoing normalization efforts
between Ankara and Yerevan, Crowley said, "As the secretary said
last week, we think that there is ample room for Turkey and Armenia
to evaluate the historical facts as to what happened decades ago."
When reminded of the fact that Clinton’s remarks were interpreted by
some Turks as being in favor of Turkey while by Armenia as favoring the
Armenian diaspora and asked for a clarification, Crowley said: "The
advancement of normalized relations between Armenia and Turkey is in
the interest of both countries. It’s in the interest of the region as
well. We cannot afford to look at this in zero sum terms, that somehow
scoring a point on one side is a loss for the other. … There’s not a
common understanding of what happened 90 years ago. But we value the
courageous steps that both leaders have taken, and we just continue
to encourage both countries to move forward and not look backward."
A clear move against the resolution, meanwhile, has come from the
business front, as the US aerospace and defense industry has urged
House of Representatives lawmakers to reject the measure, warning it
could jeopardize US exports to Turkey.
The chief executives of Lockheed Martin Corp., Boeing Co., Raytheon
Co., United Technologies Corp. and Northrop Grumman Corp. issued a
rare joint letter, warning that passage of the measure by the House
Committee on Foreign Affairs could lead to "a rupture in US-Turkey
relations" and put American jobs at risk. "Alienating a significant
NATO ally and trading partner would have negative repercussions
for US geopolitical interests and efforts to boost both exports and
employments," the CEOs warned in a Feb. 26 letter to the committee’s
Democratic chairman, Representative Howard Berman.
In Damascus, meanwhile, Syrian Information Minister Mohsen Bilal
denied on Wednesday that there is a mass grave of Anatolian Armenians
in Deir Zor, Syria, as suggested in CBS’s "60 Minutes" which aired
a program called "Battle Over History" on Sunday.
"Deir Zor is to Armenians what Auschwitz is to Jews," said the CBS
program information which Bilal labeled as "fictitious." "If we
had information, we would not let them shoot video-footage here,"
he also said.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
