ANSAmed, Italy
March5 2010

TURKEY:ARMENIAN MASSACRES;USA,ANKARA NOT MINCING WORDS

(ANSAmed) – ANKARA – The vote of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the
US House of Representatives on a non-binding resolution in which the
1915 and 1917 Armenian massacres that took place during the Ottoman
empire are defined as ”genocide” was expected in Ankara. So much so
that, with unusual speed in Turkey, as soon as it was discovered from
the website of the Turkish Cabinet Office that out of the 46 members
of the Committee, 23 against 22 voted in favour of the document, a
message of condemnation immediately appeared. Premier Tayyip Erdogan
expressed concern over the consequences of the vote and underlined
that the taking of a stance by the parliamentary body ”risks damaging
Turkish-American relations, as well as the process of normalisation
between Turkey and Armenia.” Shortly after, it was announced that the
Turkish Ambassador to the US, Namik Tan, has been immediately recalled
to Ankara ”for consultation”. Tan arrived in Washington just a few
weeks but is already an expert on America. That things were not
looking good for Ankara was already clear a few days ago, but events
have taken a turn for the worse in the last 48 hours. Turkey was
opposed to the approval of the document insomuch as it has always
denied that the number of Armenians killed during the massacres total
one and a half million (for Ankara there were ”only” 300,000) and
that they died as a result of a civil war and not due to genocide.
Thus yesterday morning Turkey had already raised not only the
possibility of withdrawing their Ambassador if the resolution were
approved, but also the potential of cancelling contracts worth 45
billion dollars with five large US defence companies. Furthermore,
Ankara has circulated – via the Turkish press – a so-called ‘Plan B’
to be implemented if the document is approved. This plan sets out,
amongst other things, that Turkey could potentially not ratify the
protocols of normalisation of relations signed in October in Zurich
with Armenia, considered to be important for the stability of the
Caucasus.

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