Armenian ‘genocide’ vote unjust, says Turkey
US congressional panel’s resolution describing ‘genocide’ of Armenians
could damage relations, warns Turkish PM
Daniel Nasaw in Washington
guardian.co.uk,
Friday 5 March 2010 10.21 GMT
menian-genocide-vote-unjust-turkey
Armenian orphans during the first world war. A US congressional panel
labelled the massacre of Armenians as genocide. Photograph: John
Elder/Reuters
Turkey’s prime minister warned of serious damage to US-Turkish
relations today after a congressional committee approved a resolution
describing the massacre of more than 1 million Armenians by the
Ottoman empire during the first world war as genocide.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his country had been accused of a crime it
did not commit, adding that the resolution would hamper efforts by
Turkey and Armenia to end a century of hostility.
Turkey last night recalled its ambassador after the house foreign
affairs committee approved 23-22 the non-binding measure despite
objections from the Obama administration, which had warned that such a
move 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.
The Turkish president, Abdullah Gul, called the resolution "an
injustice to history and to the science of history".
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 would 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 use the term last year in a statement
recognising Armenian remembrance day, which commemorates the
massacres.
The secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, called a senior Democrat
congressman, Howard Berman, on Wednesday to warn that the resolution
could hurt US-Turkey relations.