US VOTE ON ARMENIAN GENOCIDE ANGERS TURKEY

EUObserver
March 5 2010

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – Ankara on Thursday (4 march) recalled its
ambassador from Washington in protest over a resolution passed by US
lawmakers recognising the Armenian genocide in 1915.

The foreign affairs committee in the US Congress narrowly passed a
non-binding resolution condemning as "genocide" the First World War
killings of 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman empire.

Turkey strongly rejects the term genocide to describe the mass killings
of Armenians back in 1915 (Photo: EUobserver.com) Print Comment
article Ankara reacted immediately by withdrawing its ambassador from
Washington. Turkey rejects the genocide label and argues that 300,000
to 500,000 Armenians and at least as many Turks died when Christian
Armenians took up arms against their Ottoman rulers and sided with
invading Russian troops.

"We condemn this draft resolution, accusing the Turkish nation with
a crime that it has not committed," a statement from the Turkish
government read.

The government also warned that the move may jeopardise a timid
revival of Turkish-Armenian relations, which was strongly supported and
mediated by the US and praised by the EU in its last monitoring report.

The agreement signed last year is still pending the approval of the
parliaments in Ankara and Erevan.

"Turkey plays a key role in regional security and the promotion of
dialogue between civilisations. Significant diplomatic efforts to
normalise relations with Armenia were made, resulting in the signature
of protocols for the normalisation of relations in October 2009. It is
important that these protocols are swiftly ratified by both countries,"
the commission report reads.

The rapprochement was one of the few positive developments noted by
Brussels in the last year. Turkey is moving toward EU requirements
for membership slowly, after having started negotiations in 2005.

Relations with its neighbours are "key" to its progress said the
EU commission.

EU mediation efforts have also been deployed in a frozen conflict
involving ethnic Armenians in Turkey’s neighbouring country and strong
ally, Azerbaijan. The enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh is still controlled
by Armenia, after a brief war in the early 1990s, which was backed
by Russia. Both Armenia and Azerbaijan are part of the EU’s so-called
Eastern Partnership aimed at boosting ties with post-Soviet countries.

U-turn on Armenian genocide

The US resolution, which was approved with 23 to 22 votes, calls on
President Barack Obama to recognise the "genocide" in his presidential
statement marking the Armenian remembrance day on 24 April.

The Obama administration had warned the congress against adopting
such a resolution, which may upset its relations with Turkey, a key
Nato ally of strategic importance for the US in the Middle East,
Iraq and Afghanistan.

Such approach marks something of a u-turn from Mr Obama’s pledges
during the campaign trail leading to his election in 2008, when he
repeatedly said that "America deserves a leader who speaks truthfully
about the Armenian genocide."

Last year, during a common press conference with his Turkish
counterpart Abdullah Gul, Mr Obama carefully avoided the term
"genocide" and only referred to a "difficult and tragic history,"
saying that it was up to historians to decide the terminology.

French parallel

A similar resolution was passed by EU member France, which is very
sceptical of Turkey’s membership bid to the bloc, as well as Canada.

Meanwhile, a French insurance company, Axa, is said to have paid
compensation to thousands descendants of Armenians massacred in World
War I based on life insurance policies taken at the time.

Hilda Tchoboian, the head of an Armenian association in the French city
of Lyon, told AFP that Axa had agreed to pay nearly 1,000 Armenian,
French and American families, and had started sending cheques of
about â~B¬8,000 each.

Axa is the second insurance company to pay compensation to descendants
of massacred Armenians. US company New York Life agreed in 2005 to
pay â~B¬8.8 million euros to victims’ heirs.