ADMINISTRATION WALKS FINE LINE ON BLASTS FROM TURKEY
by John Gizzi
Human Events, DC
Oct 23 2007
In less than a week from some sharp verbal blasts from both the prime
minister of Turkey and the commander of the Turkish armed forces,
the Bush Administration is walking a fine line on how to respond to
the leadership of a country enraged over the affirmative vote on the
Pelosi-champioined Armenian genocide resolution by the House Foreign
Affairs Committee.
"The President has talked to [Turkish] Prime Minister [Recep
Tayyip] Erdogan since the vote in the House earlier this month," one
Administration source told me on background this afternoon, adding
that the White House, and State and Defense Departments have made it
clear to Ankara that passage of the measure so distasteful to Turkey
"was a calculated move by the leadership of the House."
But there was no public rebuttal to recent, sharply-worded statements
by Erdogan and General Yasar Buyukanit warned of estrangement from
the US over the Armenian genocide resolution. In an interview with
the Times of London Sunday, Prime Minister Erdogan warned that
"those who sign up to a campaign against Turkey in relation to the
so-called Armenian genocide are really the ones firing a bullet at
the friendship between America and Turkey."
Asked how he would retaliate if the full House approved the resolution
(which came out of the Foreign Affairs Committee on a vote of
27-to-21), Erdogan told the Times: "There is a saying in Turkey:
you do not measure a nappy for an unborn child."
His comments came a week after Gen. Buyukanit, commander of Turkey’s
armed forces, told the Turkish daily newspaper Milliyet "If this
resolution passed in the committee passes the House as well, our
military ties with the US will never be the same again."
The same Administration source cautioned me not to put significant
stock in "a couple of public statements" and noted that both the
prime minister and Gen. Buyukanit have "an internal situation they
have to deal with. . .Turkey is just coming off national elections."
There is some confidence within the Administration that the Ankara
government understands that the committee vote was achieved with
the strong support of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi over the vocal
opposition of the President. In his interview with HUMAN EVENTS
before being recalled for consultation with the prime minister after
the House committee vote, Turkish Ambassador Nabi Sensoy told us he
would make it clear to Erdogan that the President was strong in his
opposition to the measure and that Speaker Pelosi had made it clear
she was strongly behind his passage. Erdogan himself noted to the
Times that he "would like to thank President Bush and Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice and all other representatives of the senior
administration who have made efforts in this direction."
But, the same Administration source also told me, under these
circumstances, "of course, one is worried."