TURKISH ANGER AT ‘GENOCIDE’ VOTE
BBC NEWS
mericas/8550928.stm
2010/03/05 10:27:19 GMT
Turkey has reacted angrily to a US congressional panel’s resolution
describing as genocide the killings of Armenians in World War I.
PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his country had been accused of a crime it
did not commit, adding the resolution would harm Turkish-US relations.
Ankara has recalled its ambassador to Washington for consultations
and says it is considering other responses.
The White House had urged against the vote. Armenia welcomed the
outcome.
The government of Turkey, a key American ally and fellow Nato member,
had lobbied hard for the US Congress not to vote on the issue.
" Turkey will not be responsible for the negative results that this
event may lead to " Turkish President Abdullah Gul The BBC’s Jane
O’Brien in Washington says Turkey must be hoping that, as with a
similar resolution two years ago, the issue will not come to the
floor of the House for a full vote.
In 2007, it passed the committee stage, but was shelved after pressure
from the George W Bush administration.
Delegation
The resolution was narrowly approved – by 23 votes to 22 – by the
House Foreign Affairs Committee.
It calls on President Barack Obama to ensure that US foreign policy
reflects an understanding of the "genocide" and to label the World
War I killings as such in his annual statement on the issue.
ANALYSIS Jonathan Head, BBC News, Ankara Turkey is not hiding its
anger over the way the vote went in Washington.
Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu pointedly demanded that the Obama
administration make greater efforts and said Turkey would lobby hard
to try to prevent the resolution from being approved by the full
House. Ankara clearly expects stronger administration support from
now on.
It says it is still committed to normalising relations with Armenia –
and that the US vote will not influence how it handles this process.
The Turkish government is holding back ratification of the agreement
signed by both countries last year because of what it believes is a
re-interpretation of it by the Armenian constitutional court.
Turkish President Abdullah Gul responded angrily to the committee’s
vote, saying it was "an injustice to history" to take such a decision
with "political concerns in mind".
"Turkey will not be responsible for the negative results that this
event may lead to," he said.
Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told a news conference in Ankara
on Friday that Turkey was determined to press ahead with efforts to
normalise relations with Armenia.
However, he said the ratification by parliament of peace accords
signed with Armenia last October was in jeopardy.
A Turkish parliamentary delegation had gone to Washington to try to
persuade committee members to reject the resolution.
Turkey accepts that atrocities were committed but argues they were
part of the war and that there was no systematic attempt to destroy
the Christian Armenian people.
The Armenian government welcomed the vote, calling it "an important
step towards the prevention of crimes against humanity".
‘Too important’
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had urged the House committee not
to vote on Thursday on the grounds that it would damage reconciliation
efforts between Turkey and Armenia, and said she hoped it would go
no further.
MASS KILLINGS OF ARMENIANS
Hundreds of thousands of ethnic Armenians killed by Ottoman Turks
in 1915-6 Many historians and the Armenian people believe the
killings amount to genocide Turks and some historians deny they were
orchestrated More than 20 countries regard the massacres as genocide
"We do not believe that the full Congress will or should act upon that
resolution, and we have made that clear to all the parties involved,"
she said.
During his campaign for the 2008 election, Mr Obama promised to brand
the mass killings genocide.
Mrs Clinton acknowledged his administration’s change of opinion on
the issue, saying circumstances had "changed in very significant ways".
In October last year, Turkey and Armenia signed a historic accord
normalising relations between them after a century of hostility.
Armenia wants Turkey to recognise the killings as an act of genocide,
but successive Turkish governments have refused to do so.
Hundreds of thousands of Armenians died in 1915, when they were
deported en masse from eastern Anatolia by the Ottoman Empire. They
were killed by troops or died from starvation and disease.
Armenians have campaigned for the killings to be recognised
internationally as genocide – and more than 20 countries have done so.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
