Turkey Urges Obama To Block Armenian Genocide Bill
05.03.2010
article/1975539.html
Just hours after recalling its ambassador to Washington, Turkey urged
the U.S. government on Friday to thwart further progress of a draft
congressional resolution that describes the mass killings and
deportations of Armenians by Ottoman forces as genocide.
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu also warned President Barack
Obama against using the word `genocide’ in a statement on the issue
expected next month. `We expect Obama not to perpetuate or exaggerate
this crisis in April,’ Davutoglu was reported to say, reiterating
Ankara’s strong condemnation of the resolution’s approval by the
Foreign Affairs Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, indicated that the
Obama administration will try to block the resolution’s passage by the
full House. In that regard, she downplayed its endorsement by the
House panel.
`The committee … has voted out such a resolution, I think, three times
in the past,’ Clinton said on Thursday shortly before the committee
vote. `They’re likely to vote it out again. But we do not believe that
the full Congress will or should act upon that resolution, and we have
made that clear to all the parties involved.’
Clinton made the comments at a news conference held during a visit to
Costa Rica. A reporter reminded her that both she and Obama have
strongly advocated U.S. recognition of the Armenian genocide in the
past, wondering why they are opposed to it now.
`Well, I think circumstances have changed in very significant ways,’
Clinton replied, pointing to the signing last October of two
U.S.-brokered protocols envisaging the normalization relations between
Armenia and Turkey.
`Within the protocols, there was an agreed-upon approach to
establishing a historical commission to look at events in the past’
she said. `I do not think it is for any other country to determine how
two countries resolve matters between them, to the extent that actions
that the United States might take could disrupt this process.’
`Therefore, both President Obama and I have made clear, both last year
and again this year, that we do not believe any action by the Congress
is appropriate, and we oppose it,’ added Clinton.
The chief U.S. diplomat reportedly telephoned the Foreign Affairs
Committee chairman, Howard Berman, on Wednesday to urge him to drop
the proposed legislation. However, Berman went ahead with the vote and
played a decisive role in its outcome.
Davutoglu complained that the Obama administration did not lobby hard
enough against a bill which he said `seriously disturbed’ the Turkish
government. `We expect the US administration to make more efficient
efforts from now on’ to stop the resolution from advancing to a vote
at the full House of Representatives, he told a news conference in
Ankara, reported AFP news agency.
`We don’t want to go through this crisis every spring,’ Davutoglu
said, according to `Hurriyet Daily News.’ `That is why we embarked on
the normalization of the relationship with Armenia. We thought that
this would begin to settle things, and we really did not expect this
kind of backlash.’
The House committee vote put Turkish ratification of the agreements
with Armenia into jeopardy, added the Turkish minister.
Ankara dragged its feet over the ratification even months before the
latest development. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other
Turkish leaders have repeatedly made that conditional on a resolution
of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict acceptable to Azerbaijan.
`We are determined to press ahead with normalization of relations with
Armenia,’ said Davutoglu. But he said his government will not be
`pressured’ into doing so.