WHITE HOUSE URGES CONGRESS NOT TO PASS ARMENIAN GENOCIDE RESOLUTION

Voice of America
March 4 2010

A boy pauses in front of a wall-sized poster depicting the faces of 90
survivors of the mass killings of Armenians during WW I, in Yerevan,
Armenia (file)

The White House says a Congressional resolution declaring the World
War I -era killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks as genocide could
hurt relations between Armenia and Turkey.

A White House spokesman said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
called the chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign
Affairs Committee, Howard Berman Wednesday and indicated that further
Congressional action could impede progress on normalization of
relations between Turkey and Armenia.

The committee began debating the non-binding resolution Thursday
ahead of a scheduled vote. If approved, the measure would then go to
the full House for consideration.

Turkey has warned that its relations with the United States will be
damaged if the House of Representatives passes the measure.

The White House says President Barack Obama spoke Wednesday with
Turkish President Abdullah Gul and expressed appreciation for
Turkish efforts to normalize relations with Armenia. Mr. Obama urged
ratification of protocols signed between the countries last year.

Armenians say the massacres of some 1.5 million people between 1915
and 1923 were the result of an orchestrated campaign by the Ottoman
Turks. Turkey strongly rejects the label of genocide, saying far
fewer Armenians died and that they were killed in a civil war in
which Turks also died.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told reporters in Cairo
Wednesday that if the House resolution is adopted at the committee
level, the Obama administration should take steps to ensure it is
not voted on by Congress.

He said U.S. recognition of the killings as genocide would not only
harm U.S.-Turkey relations, but ties between Turkey and Armenia. He
said relations with Armenia are going through their best phase,
with strong cooperation and a desire to end decades of enmity.

Turkey is a key ally of the United States and serves as a major supply
route for U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Turkish and Armenian leaders signed protocols last year that would
establish bilateral relations and open their shared border, but they
have not been approved by either nation’s parliament.