ROW OVER US CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE PROPOSED RESOLUTION ON ARMENIA GENOCIDE

Sofia Echo
March 4 2010
Bulgaria

The foreign affairs committee of the US house of representatives was
set to vote on declaring that the 1915 massacre of more than a million
Armenians by Ottoman Turks was genocide, with Turkey warning that
such a move could harm US-Turkey relations, the Voice of America said.

The resolution calls on the US president to ensure that US foreign
policy refers to the mass killing of Armenians by Turkey’s then
Ottoman rulers as genocide.

Armenians say that as many as 1.5 million perished. But Ankara says
far fewer died and that they were killed in a civil war in which
Turks also died.

Turkish deputy prime minister Cemil Cicek warned of repercussions,
if the motion was approved.

"Turkey and the United States are two important allies," he said. "We
have a shared history over the past 50-60 years. Adopting this
resolution will harm relations."

In a rare show of unity, a powerful Turkish bipartisan parliamentary
group was in Washington to deliver that message. But they were facing
an uphill battle.

Although president Barack Obama is on record as supporting the
recognition of the killings as genocide, he avoided using that term
in front of his hosts last year while visiting Turkey.

Instead, Obama emphasised the need to improve relations between
Turkey and Armenia. He pointed to hopes for a breakthrough to ease
long-standing tensions.

"What I would like to do is to encourage [Turkish] president
[Abdullah] Gul to move forward with what have been some very fruitful
negotiations," Obama said. "And I am not interested in the United
States in anyway tilting these negotiations one way or another while
they are having useful discussions."

In October 2009, the presidents of Turkey and Armenia signed a
protocol committing to normalising relations and working to resolve
the historical dispute. Ankara has warned that the US congress passing
the genocide resolution could seriously undermine those efforts.

But analysts say that efforts to normalise relations have grounded
to a halt, with neither country’s parliament ratifying the protocol.

Political scientist Cengiz Aktar of Istanbul’s Bahcesehir University
said: "I don’t think the Turkish government is serious enough on
ratifying the protocol because the reason they evoke to block the
ratification process in the parliament is not serious.

"I think, unfortunately, [this is] yet another missed opportunity"
Aktar said.

Turkey’s minister for EU affairs, Egemen Bagis, said that Washington
should think carefully before acting.

"There would be important implications," Bagis said. "Turkey today
provides 70 per cent of all the logistical goods to all the U.S.

troops in Iraq. Turkey is an important player in Nato We have the
second largest military in Nato. We are together in most of the
peacekeeping operations."

And with Turkey bordering Iran, analysts say it stands to play
a crucial role in enforcing new, tougher sanctions against Tehran
for its nuclear programme, VOA said. Turkey also plays an important
military and diplomatic role in Afghanistan.

But Aktar said that with Turkish-European Union relations strained,
Ankara’s warnings are weak.

"Turkey, who has a difficult relationship with the EU, can hardly
antagonise yet another Western entity, that is the United States,"
Aktar said. "So what is left really? So it’s just rhetoric."

Turkish daily Hurriyet quoted Richard L. Armitage, who served
as deputy secretary of state during former US president George
W. Bush’s first term, as saying that he was disappointed about the
Obama administration’s failure in not preventing the resolution going
to the committee.

Armitage said on March 3 2010 that he expected that the voting will
be a close call.

"Turkish people should take a deep breath and remember that the
resolution is a nonbinding one," he said. "And this vote is just at
a committee level."

When asked what he would expect to happen if the resolution were
to pass, Armitage said, "Turkey should not respond in a vindictive
manner."

In 2007, the same committee passed a similar resolution on the issue,
and even though the Bush administration had lobbied hard against it,
Turkey was still furious, the BBC said.

At the time, Turkey recalled its ambassador from Washington and
threatened to withdraw its support for the war in Iraq.

Nationalist sentiment is intense in Turkey, and if the resolution
passes, there will be an emotional reaction, even by those who have
been arguing for reconciliation with Armenia, the BBC said.

In Turkey, Today’s Zaman said that Murat Mercan, head of Turkish
parliament’s foreign relations committee, had issued a firm warning
that approval of the resolution would hurt the US, Armenia and Turkey.

"The sole winner from all this would be the emotions and the ego of the
Armenian lobby. Approval of the draft resolution would inflict damage
to the United States, Armenia and Turkey," Mercan told journalists
on March 3.

On March 4, the Anatolia News Agency said that Turkish president
Abdullah Gul had spoken by phone with Obama the previous day.

Sources from the Turkish presidency told the agency that Gul and Obama
"exchanged views on bilateral and regional issues". The fact that Gul
spoke to Obama on the eve of the vote was noteworthy, officials said,
according to the agency.