US SHOWS NO SIGN OF BACKING DOWN ON ARMENIAN ISSUE

ASSOCIATED PRESS
17/03/2010 19:25

Obama administration official says there is no deal with Democratic
congressional leaders to block genocide resolution.

Talkbacks (1) WASHINGTON – A US congressional resolution that would
recognize Ottoman era killings of Armenians as genocide could go
forward despite opposition from the Obama administration.

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

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

Turkey strongly opposes the resolution. It withdrew its ambassador to
Washington this month after a congressional committee approved the
measure. The Obama administration has urged lawmakers not to allow
it to proceed to a vote by the whole House of Representatives.

It is not clear that proponents of the resolution have sufficient
support to pass it or that the leader of the House, Speaker Nancy
Pelosi, a Democrat, is prepared to bring it to the floor for a vote.

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

Gordon said that the resolution had created an obstacle for
reconciliation talks between Turkey and Armenia. The two countries
reached a deal last year to normalize relations and open their border,
but it has not yet been ratified by their governments.

Gordon denied that the process has stalled.

"I really think that those two countries’ leaderships are committed
to doing this," he told reporters.

He said that the Obama administration thinks that the historical
issues are best addressed by the two countries as part of the
reconciliation talks.

Historians estimate that up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed by
Ottoman Turks around the time of World War I, an event widely viewed
by genocide scholars as the first genocide of the 20th century. Turkey
however denies that the deaths constituted genocide, saying the toll
has been inflated, and that those killed were victims of civil war
and unrest.

Gordon acknowledged that the congressional committee’s vote had set
back US-Turkish relations at a time that the United States is seeking
help from Ankara on reining in Iran’s nuclear ambitions. He said that
the United States has not seen a deterioration of cooperation with
Turkey on a wide range of foreign policy.

A speech that was mostly positive on US-Turkish relations, Gordon
urged Turkey to step up pressure on Iran, a neighbor and important
trading partner. He criticized Ankara for abstaining on a resolution
at the International Atomic Energy Agency demanding that Iran suspend
construction of a once secret nuclear facility near the city of Qom.

"With respect to Iran, while the international community has sought
to present a single, coordinated message to Iran’s government, Turkey
has at times sounded a different note," Gordon said, according to
prepared text of the speech.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress