Turkey calls US envoy back home
By Vincent Boland in Ankara, Demetri Sevastopulo in London and Daniel
Dombey in Washington
Published: October 11 2007 17:44 | Last updated: October 12 2007 00:13
Turkey summoned back its ambassador from Washington on Thursday night
in reaction to the US congressional vote labelling the mass killings
of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire as genocide.
The move comes amid warnings that the issue could mark a turning point
in relations between Washington and Ankara and jeopardise US troops in
Iraq.
The non-binding resolution was adopted by the House of Representatives
foreign affairs committee in a 27-21 vote on Wednesday.
It is now set to go to the full House in coming weeks despite intense
opposition from Turkey and the Bush administration, which fears the
measure will further damage an already strained relationship.
"We are not withdrawing our ambassador. We have asked him to come to
Turkey for some consultations,” Levent Bilman, a Turkish foreign
ministry spokesman, said.
He added that the ambassador would stay in Turkey for a week or 10
days for discussions on the vote.
"We look forward to his swift return and will continue to work to
maintain strong US-Turkish relations," the White House said.
Turkey accepts that hundreds of thousands of Ottoman Armenians were
killed from 1915 to 1917 as the empire collapsed and before the
Republic of Turkey was created. But it rejects the idea of genocide
and insists that the victims died because of war, hunger, and
displacement.
Several countries have endorsed the genocide verdict, but for the US
to be on the brink of now doing the same – as seems likely if the
whole House of Representatives votes on it – is especially dismaying
to many Turks.
Some see it as a symbol of a growing disengagement between two
military allies who enjoyed a long and largely pragmatic relationship
until the US invasion of Iraq.
"When we look back in 20 years we might see this as a milestone in the
way Turkey and the US have drifted apart," said Suat Kiniklioglu, an
MP for the ruling Justice and Development party.
Others say that Turkey has backed itself irrevocably into a corner on
the Armenian issue by refusing to engage with its critics and by
silencing domestic debate. Cengiz Aktar, an academic and commentator
in Istanbul, said: "Turkey has made this a question of honour but it
has no other policy. We were more flexible on this issue 20 years ago
than we are today."
The House resolution comes at a delicate time in US relations.
Ankara’s parliament is expected next week to approve a military
operation into northern Iraq in pursuit of Kurdish PKK separatist
rebels who have staged bloody attacks inside Turkey in recent weeks.
Such a move is fiercely opposed by the US, which fears that Iraq’s
most stable region could be engulfed in a new conflict.
Such an authorisation might not be acted on immediately. But the
Turkish authorities appear determined to rout the PKK in the face of a
wave of outrage at recent killings of civilians and soldiers. "The
prime minister feels that our policy of restraint [on the PKK] has to
end," Mr Kiniklioglu said.
But threats of retaliation against the US if the House adopted the
resolution, made by some Turkish politicians, may be premature.
Several diplomats pointed out on Thursday that the Bush administration
and much of the US foreign policy establishment took Ankara’s side in
opposing the resolution, a fact that could influence any official
Turkish response.
Robert Gates, the US defence secretary, said there could be "enormous
present-day implications" for US operations in Iraq if Turkey took
retaliatory action.
Nicholas Burns, the undersecretary of state, said the administration
would contact the Turkish government to convey its "deep
disappointment" at the adoption of the resolution.
Additional reporting by agencies
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007
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