US MILITARY PRAISES TURKISH ROLE IN AFGHANISTAN, IRAQ

Hurriyet
March 18 2010
Turkey

Two senior United States generals praised Wednesday Turkey’s
military assistance in Iraq and Afghanistan while hinting at fears
the cooperation could be scaled back with a potential U.S. House vote
on Armenian genocide claims.

Gen. David Petraeus, commander of the U.S. Central Command and
responsible for Afghanistan and Iraq, and Gen. Duncan McNabb,
commander of the U.S. Air Force’s Transportation Command, spoke at
a hearing of the House Armed Services Committee on their forces’
defense authorization budget requests for next year.

Vic Snyder, a Democratic representative from Arkansas, asked the
two generals to comment on the normalization process between Turkey
and Armenia.

During a time when the two countries’ reconciliation process has been
showing signs of faltering, a House Foreign Affairs Committee passed
a resolution on March 4 calling on Washington to define the World
War I-era killings of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire as "genocide."

Turkey has warned that Ankara’s cooperation with the U.S. will be
adversely affected if the full House endorses the bill.

Petraeus said he did not want to comment directly on Snyder’s question,
but chose to focus on the importance of Turkey’s military collaboration
with the U.S. on Afghanistan and Iraq.

"[Turkey has] forces deployed in Afghanistan. In fact, they’re
operating with considerable skill – [and] very impressively in
the Kabul district, which is their area of responsibility there,"
Petraeus said.

"And then, of course, there is Turkish involvement in a relationship
with Iraq which, again, all of us sought to work together, as we did
to promote the relationship of Iraq with its other neighbors as well,"
he said.

McNabb also emphasized the significant role Turkey’s southern Ä°ncirlik
Air Base has played in helping U.S. logistical military operations
in Afghanistan and Iraq. "Ä°ncirlik is a really pivotal base for us,
both for the re-supply of Iraq and for the re-supply of Afghanistan."

No deal to stop resolution

Meanwhile, a senior U.S. diplomat signaled that a congressional
resolution that would recognize Ottoman era killings of Armenians as
"genocide" could go forward despite opposition from the administration
of President Barack Obama.

Assistant Secretary of State Philip Gordon told reporters that there is
no deal with Democratic congressional leaders to block the resolution,
contradicting earlier claims by the State Department.

"Congress is an independent body and they are going to do what they
decide to do," the Associated Press quoted Gordon as saying ahead of
speech at the Brookings Institution.

It is not clear whether the resolution’s proponents have sufficient
support to pass a prospective bill or whether House leader and Speaker
Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, is prepared to bring the matter to a full
House vote.

"I recognize that we have a tough job ahead of us to garner the
necessary support," said the resolution’s chief sponsor, Democratic
Representative Adam Schiff

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress