TURKEY RECALLS US AMBASSADOR OVER ARMENIA GENOCIDE RESOLUTION
Daniel Nasaw in Washington
guardian.co.uk
Friday 5 March 2010 00.16 GMT
House of Representatives committee approve resolution describing
massacre of more than a million Armenians during the first world war
as genocide
Turkey tonight recalled its ambassador to the US after a House
of Representatives committee approved a resolution describing the
massacre of more than a million Armenians by the Ottoman empire during
the first world war as genocide.
The non-binding measure passed despite objections from the Obama
administration, which had warned the house foreign affairs committee
it would harm relations with Turkey – a Nato ally with about 1,700
troops in Afghanistan – and could imperil fragile reconciliation
talks between Turkey and Armenia.
Turkish President Abdullah Gul called the resolution "an injustice
to history and to the science of history."
However, Armenia applauded the passage of the measure, which its
foreign minister, Edward Nalbandian, described as "an important step
towards the prevention of crimes against humanity". He added: "This
is further proof of the devotion of the American people to universal
human values and is an important step towards the prevention of crimes
against humanity."
It remained unclear whether the resolution will come to a vote in the
full house. A similar 2007 resolution died after intense lobbying by
the Bush administration, amid fears it would damage relations between
Turkey and the US. Historians say that 1.5 million Armenians were
killed by the Ottoman empire between 1915 and 1923, during a forced
resettlement. "The overwhelming historical evidence demonstrates
that what took place in 1915 was genocide," writes Henri Barkey,
a Turkey scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
in Washington DC, who nevertheless opposes the house resolution as
a needless political manoeuvre.
The killings are considered one of the first instances of genocide
in the 20th century. Turkey insists its historical records indicate
no genocide took place, but points to a lack of common historical
understanding over the events.
After centuries of foreign domination, Armenia won independence from
the Soviet Union in 1991.
Under Swiss auspices, Turkey and Armenia have been negotiating a
normalisation of bilateral relations and an opening of the border,
outcomes which are strongly favoured by the US.
The house resolution is the product of intensive lobbying by
Armenian-Americans. Last year the Armenian national committee of
America spent $50,000 (£33,000) lobbying Congress on the resolution,
which urged Barack Obama to characterise the events as genocide in
an annual message commemorating the massacres.
During the presidential campaign, he referred to the killings
as genocide, but did not used the term last year in a statement
recognising Armenian remembrance day, which commemorates the massacres
On Wednesday, Secretary of state Hillary Clinton had called a senior
Democrat Congressman, Howard Berman, to warn that the resolution
could hurt US-Turkey relations.