Turkey develops pressure plan against U.S.

ANKARA, March 6 (RIA Novosti)

Turkey signaled on Saturday that it may use countermeasures against
the U.S. if a controversial bill condemning as genocide the World War
I killings of Armenians by Turks was passed.

The Foreign Affairs Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives
voted on Thursday 23-22 in support of the resolution following almost
six hours of heated debates.

Although not yet adopted, the bill has already become a diplomatic
flashpoint between Washington and Ankara.

It will now go before the full House, although no date has been set
for the vote.

Ankara condemned the bill and recalled its newly appointed ambassador
to the United States, Namik Tan, for consultations.

"We condemn this bill that blames the Turkish nation for a crime it
did not commit. Our Washington ambassador was invited to Ankara
tonight for consultations," Turkey’s Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan
said in a statement posted on his office’s website.

President Abdullah Gul said Turkey would "not be responsible for the
negative results of this vote," adding that it harmed "peace and
stability in South Caucasus, and establishment of constant friendship
between the peoples."

According to the Turkish newspaper Sabah, among the measures to be
discussed at a governmental meeting on Monday is postponing for the
second time Trade Minister Zafer Caglayan’s visit to the United
States, scheduled for March 19.

Ankara hinted that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan may not attend
the Global Nuclear Security Summit, which will be held on April 11-14
in Washington.

Economic measures include determining "new alternatives" in trade
between Turkey and the United States. In the energy sphere, Ankara
will favor closer ties with Moscow.

On the military front, the decision on the bilateral cooperation,
especially in Afghanistan, will be put on hold, but use of Turkey’s
air space and restriction of activities in its military bases "are on
the table." Ankara expects that collaborative efforts between Western
powers and Iran will also be weighed down.

On Friday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the Obama
administration would "work very hard" to ensure that the controversial
bill would not reach the full House floor.

Turkey, which has always refused to recognize the killings of an
estimated 1.5 million Armenians at the end of the Ottoman period in
1915 as an act of genocide, earlier warned Washington that this move
could jeopardize U.S-Turkish cooperation and set back the talks aimed
at opening the border between Turkey and Armenia, which has been
closed since 1993 on Ankara’s initiative.

A similar vote in the committee was approved by a wider margin in
2007, but the U.S. Bush administration, anxious to retain Turkish
cooperation in Iraq, scuttled a full House vote.