U.S. ARMENIA GENOCIDE VOTE LOOMS, ANGERING TURKEY
Susan Cornwell and Arshad Mohammed
Reuters
March 4 2010
UK
Tue, Mar 2 2010WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. congressional panel headed
on Thursday toward a vote on calling a 1915 massacre of Armenians by
Ottoman forces genocide despite a plea from the Obama administration
to drop the matter and defuse a dispute with Turkey.
The issue puts President Barack Obama between NATO ally Turkey,
which rejects calling the events genocide, and an important U.S.
Armenian-American constituency and their backers in Congress ahead
of a November congressional election.
Turkey has said its ties with the United States would be damaged and
that Ankara’s efforts to normalize relations with Armenia could be
endangered if the resolution is passed when the House Foreign Affairs
Committee votes on Thursday.
One Turkish government official said Turkey was open to all options
— including the recall of its ambassador to Washington — if the
congressional panel approves the legislation.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton telephoned House Foreign Affairs
Committee Chairman Howard Berman, a Democrat, on Wednesday to argue
that the legislation could harm efforts to normalize Turkish-Armenian
relations, the White House said.
"Secretary Clinton called Chairman Berman … and in that conversation
the secretary indicated that further congressional action could
impede progress on normalization of relations," said National Security
Council spokesman Mike Hammer.
Turkey and Armenia signed a protocol last year to normalize relations
but the papers are yet to pass through the parliament of either
country.
Turkey is an important ally whose help the United States needs to
solve confrontations from Iran to Afghanistan.
Despite Clinton’s appeal, Berman went ahead with a hearing on the
issue.
"Turkey is a vital and, in most respects, a loyal ally of the United
States in a volatile region," Berman, an influential member of Congress
because of his chairmanship of the foreign affairs committee, said
at the start of the hearing.
"Be that as it may, nothing justifies Turkey’s turning a blind eye
to the reality of the Armenian genocide," he added.
"Germany has accepted responsibility for the Holocaust. South Africa
set up a Truth Commission to look at Apartheid. And here at home, we
continue to grapple with the legacies of slavery and our horrendous
treatment of Native Americans," he added.
"It is now time for Turkey to accept the reality of the Armenian
genocide."
FRIENDS IN THE AREA
Muslim Turkey accepts that many Christian Armenians were killed by
Ottoman forces but denies that up to 1.5 million died and that it
amounted to genocide — a term employed by many Western historians
and some foreign parliaments.
Rep. Dan Burton, an Indiana Republican, said there was "no question
horrible things happened," but urged voting against the resolution.
"We need to have as many friends in that part of the world as
possible. And Turkey has been a friend," Burton said.
The non-binding resolution, to be voted on by the House Foreign Affairs
Committee, would call on Obama to ensure U.S. policy formally refers
to the massacre as "genocide" and to use that term when he delivers
his annual message on the issue in April — something Obama avoided
doing last year.
The panel approved a similar bill in 2007 but it was never put to a
full House vote amid fears it would alienate Turkey.
Similar resolutions have been introduced in many past sessions of
Congress but have never passed both houses. Ronald Reagan was the
only U.S. president to publicly call the killings genocide.
(Additional reporting by Zerin Elci in Ankara, Writing by Thomas
Grove and Arshad Mohammed; Editing by Doina Chiacu)