Ankara blames Obama over Armenia ‘genocide’ resolution

Financial Times
March 6 2010

By Delphine Strauss in Ankara and Daniel Dombey in,Guatemala City

Published: March 6 2010 02:00 | Last updated: March 6 2010 02:00

Turkey yesterday warned of serious damage to its relations with the US
and blamed Barack Obama’s administration for failing to stop a
congressional panel from approving a resolution describing the
Ottoman-era massacres of Armenians as "genocide".

The vote by the foreign affairs committee of the House of
Representatives is a severe test of bilateral ties. It comes when
Washington is already struggling to persuade Turkey, a Nato member and
key regional ally, to back sanctions against Iran.

The Turkish government, which denies the genocide claims, recalled its
ambassador to Washington for consultations after the House committee
approved the resolution by 23 votes to 22, and complained that a
last-minute plea by Hillary Clinton, secretary of state, to stop the
measure was not forceful enough.

"We expect a more effective policy from the administration," said
Ahmet Davutoglu, foreign minister, adding that Washington had
displayed "a lack of strategic vision".

But Mrs Clinton said: "The Obama administration strongly opposes the
resolution that passed by only one vote in the House committee and
will work very hard to make sure that it does not go to the House
floor."

Her remarks, made during a visit to Guatemala, were tougher than the
previous day, when she outlined the Obama administration’s opposition,
and much stronger than congressional testimony last week in which she
obliquely warned that the resolution could be a "distraction" from the
Armenian-Turkish talks.

Mr Davutoglu said the vote could harm Turkish and Armenian efforts at
reconciliation, which had already stalled, as Turkey "never took
decisions under pressure".

The Turkish cabinet would assess the situation on Monday after
consultations with Namik Tan, the country’s ambassador to the US, who
was flying back from Washington, Mr Davutoglu said.

He said it was too early to talk of any retaliation. But US officials
express fears that the vote has hit the chance of winning an already
sceptical Turkey’s support for Iranian sanctions in the United Nations
Security Council, where it has a non-permanent seat.

"Getting Ankara on board for punitive actions against Tehran was
already going to be a challenge, but an Armenian genocide resolution
would make it nearly impossible," said Stephen A. Cook, a fellow at
the Council on Foreign Relations.

Similar resolutions have passed a committee vote before without
reaching the floor of Congress, and the US administration is
signalling this may be repeated.

"We understand that there will be no decision in full Congress. We are
against any new Congress decision," Jim Jeffrey, US ambassador in
Ankara, told reporters after being summoned to the foreign ministry
yesterday.

"I do not think it is for any other country to determine how two
countries resolve matters between them," Mrs Clinton said on Thursday,
adding that the administration did not believe the full House "will or
should" vote on the resolution.

Nationalist and anti-American feeling runs high in Turkey, and
Ankara’s tough reaction reflects its need not to alienate voters
shortly before a possible referendum on constitutional reform, and
with elections looming in 2011.

Turkey denies that the 1915 killings of some 1.5m Armenians
constituted genocide, saying many Turks also died in the chaos that
engulfed the disintegrating Ottoman empire.
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