GATES LABELS ‘GENOCIDE’ VOTE AT CONGRESS A ‘MISTAKE’

Today’s Zaman
March 15 2010
Turkey

US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has expressed regret over a
US House committee’s labeling killings of Anatolian Armenians as
genocide, while voicing awareness of probable "damaging" impacts of
the US House committee’s resolution on Turkey-US relations.

During an interview with the Al Arabiya television channel broadcast
on Friday, Gates was asked about whether he was worried, given that
Turkey withdrew its ambassador to the US in reaction to the March
4 vote and that Turkey may have threatened to withhold military
assistance to the United States.

"I am worried about it. I will say that it was just one committee of
the House of Representatives that voted on this resolution," Gates
responded, according to the transcript of the interview posted on
the Defense Department’s Web site.

"We very strongly feel that the resolution is a mistake. Turkey and
Armenia are making progress toward a reconciliation. Protocols have
been drafted along those lines. That’s the process that we think
ought to be used. A resolution of this kind could be very damaging to
US-Turkish relations, and we certainly hope that the Congress and the
House of Representatives take this measure no further," Gates added.

Armenia and Turkey signed two protocols in Zurich on Oct. 10 — the
"Protocol on the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations" and the
"Protocol on the Development of Bilateral Relations." The deals,
seen as crucial to obtaining long-term peace in the volatile South
Caucasus, must be ratified by the parliaments in Ankara and Yerevan.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton — who had urged the House
Foreign Affairs Committee not to hold the vote on March 4 — said on
March 5: "We are against this decision. Now we believe that the US
Congress will not take any decision on this subject."