Turkey Gets Clinton Pledge On Genocide Resolution

Washington Post
article/2010/03/29/AR2010032900618.html
March 29 2010

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has
assured Turkey the White House opposes a congressional resolution
labeling the World War One massacres of Armenians in Turkey as
genocide, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said Monday.

The ministry issued the statement after a telephone call between
Clinton and Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu Sunday.

The United States is keen to smooth over relations with Turkey, NATO’s
only Muslim member, and a key ally in trouble spots from Afghanistan
to the Middle East.

Turkey recalled its ambassador in Washington after a U.S. House of
Representatives committee approved a non-binding resolution on March
4 calling on President Barack Obama to refer to the killings of as
many as 1.5 million Armenians almost a century ago as genocide.

The full House of Representatives is due to consider the resolution,
although it was unclear whether it would go to a vote or had enough
support to pass.

"Secretary Clinton emphasized that the U.S. administration opposes
both the decision accepted by the committee and the decision reaching
the general assembly," the statement said.

Turkey wants to be sure that Obama will not use the term genocide in
an address scheduled for April 24, and has halted high profile visits
by officials.

Davutoglu told Clinton the congressional committee’s resolution
had negatively affected efforts to improved stability in the South
Caucasus.

While Turkey and Armenia are trying to normalize relations and open
their shared border, progress is complicated by hostility between
Armenia and Turkey’s fellow-Muslim ally, Azerbaijan.

Clinton said U.S. officials hoped Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan would
attend a summit in Washington next month on nuclear disarmament,
the foreign ministry statement said.

Davutoglu said Erdogan would decide in the next few days whether to
attend the meeting on April 13 and 14. More than 40 world leaders
are expected at the summit.

Turkey has offered to use its close ties with Iran in Tehran’s dispute
with the West over its nuclear program, but has indicated it may not
support a fourth round of U.N. sanctions being prepared by the United
States and other Western powers.

More than 20 countries recognize the killings of Armenians by Ottoman
Turks nearly a century ago as genocide. Turkey argues that both Turks
and Armenians were killed during the chaos of war and the break-up
of the Ottoman Empire.