AngolaPress
March 6 2010

US administration to block vote on Turkey ‘genocide’

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration has said it will seek to block a
controversial bill describing as genocide the World War I killing of
Armenians by Turks.

A congressional panel on Thursday approved the resolution, paving the
way for a possible vote by the House.

But US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the administration
would "work very hard" to prevent this.

Turkey voiced strong protests after the vote and recalled its
ambassador from Washington for consultations.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his country had been accused
of a crime it did not commit, adding the resolution would harm
Turkish-US relations.

President Abdullah Gul said Turkey – a key Nato ally of the US – would
"not be responsible for the negative results that this event may lead
to".

In October last year, Turkey and Armenia signed a historic accord
normalising relations between them after a century of hostility.

Armenia wants Turkey to recognise the killings as an act of genocide,
but successive Turkish governments have refused to do so.

Hundreds of thousands of Armenians died in 1915, when they were
deported en masse from eastern Anatolia by the Ottoman Empire. They
were killed by troops or died from starvation and disease.

Armenians have campaigned for the killings to be recognised
internationally as genocide – and more than 20 countries have done so.

cias/internacional/2010/2/9/administration-block-v ote-Turkey-genocide,de819a17-95ab-49a3-9da6-8ca5c1 76d51e.html