TURKEY RECALLS US AMBASSADOR FOR TALKS
By C. Onur Ant
Associated Press
Oct 11 2007 – 2 Hours Ago
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) – Turkey ordered its ambassador in Washington to
return to Turkey for consultations over a U.S. House panel’s approval
of a bill describing the World War I-era mass killings of Armenians
as genocide, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said Thursday.
The ambassador would stay in Turkey for about a week or 10 days
for discussions about the measure, said Foreign Ministry spokesman
Levent Bilman.
"We are not withdrawing our ambassador. We have asked him to come to
Turkey for some consultations," he said. "The ambassador was given
instructions to return and will come at his earliest convenience."
State Department spokesman Tom Casey, said he was unaware of Turkey’s
decision, but said the United States wants to continue to have good
relations with Turkey.
"I’ll let the Turkish government speak for itself," he said. "I think
that the Turkish government has telegraphed for a long time, has been
very vocal and very public about its concerns about this and has said
that they did intend to act in very forceful way if this happens."
Earlier, the U.S. ambassador to Turkey, Ross Wilson, was invited to
the Foreign Ministry, where Turkish officials conveyed their "unease"
over the bill, the state-run Anatolia news agency reported.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee passed the bill Wednesday despite
intense lobbying by Turkish officials and opposition from President
Bush. The vote was a triumph for well-organized Armenian-American
interest groups who have lobbied Congress for decades to pass a
resolution. The administration will now try to pressure Democratic
leaders in Congress not to schedule a vote, although it is expected
to pass.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates reiterated his opposition to the
resolution Thursday, saying the measure could hurt relations at a
time when U.S. forces in Iraq rely heavily on Turkish permission to
use their airspace for U.S. air cargo flights.
Relations are already strained by accusations that the U.S. is
unwilling to help Turkey fight Kurdish rebels based in northern Iraq.
About 70 percent of U.S. air cargo headed for Iraq goes through
Turkey, as does about one-third of the fuel used by the U.S. military
in Iraq. U.S. bases also get water and other supplies by land from
Turkish truckers who cross into the northern region of Iraqi Kurdistan.
Historians estimate 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 the deaths constituted genocide, saying that
the toll has been inflated and that those killed were victims of
civil war and unrest.
"It is not possible to accept such an accusation of a crime which
was never committed by the Turkish nation," the Turkish government
said Thursday. "It is blatantly obvious that the House Committee on
Foreign Affairs does not have a task or function to rewrite history
by distorting a matter which specifically concerns the common history
of Turks and Armenians."
Armenian President Robert Kocharian welcomed the vote, saying:
"We hope this process will lead to a full recognition by the United
States of America … of the genocide."
Speaking to reporters Thursday after meeting European Union foreign
policy chief Javier Solana, Kocharian also appealed to Turkey to join
talks on restoring bilateral relations.
Turkey is under no pressure from the EU to call the Armenian killings
genocide. The European Commission criticized France last year when
that country’s lower house voted to make it a crime to deny the
killings were genocide. The upper house did not take up the bill,
so it never became law.
Turkey has warned that relations with the United States will suffer
if the bill passes, but has not specified possible repercussions.
U.S. diplomats have been quietly preparing Turkish officials for
weeks for the likelihood that the resolution would pass, asking for
a muted response.
Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns said the Turks "have not been
threatening anything specific" in response to the vote, and that he
hopes the "disappointment can be limited to statements."
Turkey ended its military ties with France over its bill last year.
But a decision to cut far more expansive military ties with the
United States could have serious consequences for Turkey’s standing
as a reliable ally of the West.
"I don’t think that Turkey will go so far as to put in doubt its
whole network of allied relations with the United States," said
Ruben Safrastian, director of the Institute of Eastern Studies of
the Armenian National Academy of Sciences. "In the end, not only is
the United States interested in Turkey, but Turkey is interested in
the United States."
Adding to tensions, Turkey is considering launching a military
offensive into Iraq against the Kurdish rebels – a move the United
States strongly opposes because it could destabilize one of the few
relatively peaceful areas in Iraq.
Iraq’s Kurdish region is heavily dependent on trade with Turkey, which
provides the region with electricity and oil products. Annual trade
at Habur gate, the main border crossing, is more than $10 billion.
In a recent letter, Turkish President Abdullah Gul warned there would
be "serious troubles" if Congress adopted the measure. He reacted
quickly Wednesday, saying "some politicians in the United States have
once again sacrificed important matters to petty domestic politics
despite all calls to common sense."
Turkish newspapers denounced the decision. "27 foolish Americans,"
the daily Vatan said on its front-page headline, in reference to
legislators who voted for the bill.
Hurriyet called the resolution: "Bill of hatred."
The U.S. Embassy urged Americans in Turkey to be alert for violent
repercussions. Wilson said he regretted the committee’s decision and
said he hoped it would not be passed by the House.