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Turkey recalls ambassador over Armenia genocide dispute (Roundup)
Oct 11, 2007, 20:32 GMT
Turkish protestors shout slogans against the USA as they hold a huge Turkish flag during a rally at Taksim square in Istanbul, Turkey on 11 October 2007. The Foreign Affairs Committee of the US House of Representatives on Wednesday adopted a resolution describing the killing of Armenian’s by the Ottoman Empire during World War One as an act of genocide. EPA/TOLGA BOZOGLU
Istanbul/Washington - Turkey ordered its ambassador in Washington Thursday to return home in response to a US congressional resolution that condemned the World War I-era deaths of more than 1 million Armenians as 'genocide.'
The ambassador, Nabi Sensoy, was being brought back for consultations, Turkish media reports said, following the vote Wednesday by the House Foreign Affairs Committee on a non-binding resolution labelling the deaths of up to 1.5 million Armenians from 1915 to 1923 as genocide. The Turkish embassy in Washington refused to comment on the reports.
US President George W Bush strongly opposed the measure over worries it would sour relations with a NATO ally whose friendship is vital to American foreign policy in the Middle East and the war in Iraq.
Turkey has warned the resolution's passage would disrupt relations, and US diplomats were scrambling to contain the fallout. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice planned phone calls to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and President Abdullah Gul, the State Department said.
'I expect the secretary to convey in her calls to Turkish authorities ... the regret that the administration has over the passage of this resolution,' spokesman Tom Casey said.
Casey said the recall of Sensoy will not affect the ability of US officials to convey the Bush administration's views on the resolution but that the decision made by Ankara did not come as a surprise.
'The Turkish government has telegraphed for some time, been very vocal and very public about its concerns about this and has said that they did intend to react in a fairly forceful way,' he said.
Turkey lobbied unsuccessfully against the bill that passed the committee with a 27 to 21 tally and will now go to the full House for a final vote, although no date has been scheduled. Bush urged Congress to abandon the measure hours before it was approved.
Gul said in a statement posted on the embassy's website that Congress was using the measure to score political points with constituents at the cost of good relations with Turkey.
'It's a pity that some politicians in the United States closed their ears to calls of common sense,' he said.
Rice and other top US officials will continue meeting with members of Congress to urge them to 'defeat this resolution' in the final vote, Casey said.
'We're going to do everything we can to ensure that it does not receive approval by the full House,' he said. White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said the president does not want to see the measure even come up for a final vote.
US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has warned that the genocide resolution could prompt Turkey to limit its use as a transit point for US military equipment and supplies into Iraq.
Several members on the committee acknowledged that the resolution could put the Bush administration in a difficult position with Turkey but insisted it was essential for the United States to speak out accurately about acts against humanity.
Democratic Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the House who intends bring the measure up for the full vote, rejected the administration's argument that the United States cannot afford to offend Turkey.
'The US and Turkey have a very strong relationship. It is based on mutual interest,' she said. 'This isn't about ... the Erdogan government. This is about the Ottoman Empire.'
Bush called the killings one of the greatest tragedies of the 20th century but said it was up to historical scholarship to determine whether genocide is the appropriate term, echoing Turkey's official position.
Turkey denies that a systematic slaughter of Armenians took place, saying Armenians and Turks alike were killed in ethnic clashes after Armenian groups sided with Russia in World War I.
Towards the end of the 19th century, 2.5 Armenians lived within the Ottoman Empire. During the forced expulsions in 1915 and 1916 alone, 1.5 million Armenians died, according to the Wiesbaden, Germany-based Centre against forced Expulsions.
Turkey today says only 200,000 Armenians were killed. Turkish- Armenian journalist Hrant Dink was assassinated in January for writing that the mass killings amounted to genocide. Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk has encountered legal problems for doing the same.
To date, more than a dozen countries have condemned the killings as genocide, including France, Switzerland and the Netherlands. Turkey suspended military relations with France at the time and cancelled some arms deals with France.
A steady string of US supporters have taken up the Armenian cause over the decades, including diplomats who reported on the killings. Former president Woodrow Wilson supported an independent Armenia after World War I.
Several backers of the congressional resolution this week evoked a poignant historical connection: Adolf Hitler's reported 1939 remark as Nazi Germany geared up to wipe out European Jews: 'Who today remembers the extermination of the Armenians?'
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-AgenturCOMMENT
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Older Talkback
page: 1
So what happened to the 1.5 million Armenian's?? Did they fall off down the stairs at the station?? (or more likely fell over the Ottoman!)
It doesn't matter what people in the EU or Yankee Doodle Land or Ozzy Land think anymore, as they are beyond reason. The Vote was correct, it was genocide and Turkey has to reconcile itself with being a major part of it.
But Turkey is better off being closely allied to its true friend and Neighbour Iran, which is exactly what is really going on. Turkey is tieing itself to Iran through recent ground breaking deals and cooperation, these two forces will together help to make the ME stand strong against all those arrogant westerners and Imperialists, the ones that call themselves 'Civilised' yet disregard the murder of Children by western forces on an almost daily basis. Good for Turkey to turn its back on the backward and ignorrant.
Here we go again some special interest groups and lobbyist are
destroying long relations with a major Nato member.
When the cold war was going on where was the lobbyist?
Turkey was always there for US even in the Korean war.
I say let the historians from both sides
evaluate if it was genocide or not.
Not special interest groups or lobbyist.Thank you
Ya know how democrats always used to say that if they were in charge they would be able to use negotiation and diplomacy to smooth over international relations and restore the worlds love and admiration for the USA? Is this is an indication of Democrat diplomacy? Very smooth!
Pelosi's waiting for a word from Bush. Silence. The hope was that Bush would have a fit and the dems could pontificate for at least a week about how he and all republicans condone genocide. Silence...maybe he's not so dumb huh?
Turkey has called for an investigation of its Ottoman archives along with those of Armenia and Britain,France and U.S.regarding the events which occurred in Eastern Anotolia between Turks and Armenians.Turkey has had their archives opened since the 1980's and have repeatedly asked Armenia to go for a joint commission to have all their Ottoman documents studied and examined by Historians and legal experts.Armenia has rejected these offers,stating that genocide has been proven politically and that the Armenian Genocide is now undisputable.The Armenian Diaspora has claimed that the events of 1915 were similar to the Jewish Holocaust and claims to be the first genocide of the century.Even though, there has never been a legitimate document which supports these claims,and every 'document' that has been presented by the Diaspora has been proven falsified or forged, and even though the United Nations has never supported nor accepted the Armenian genocide allegations,Armenia has insisted on keeping their archives a secret behing locked doors and refuses to have these events determined in an International Court of law as the Holocaust was determined a genocide in the Nuremberg Trials.
There is evidence in the archives documenting the massacres of almost 600,000 Ottoman Turks by the Armenian Revolutionaries during the years from 1885 to 1920.These are facts which are never brought forth by Armenians nor the Diaspora. It is time for these two countries to end this dispute for once and for all, especially since Turkey has pledged it would accept whatever determination is made by legal means.
page: 1
Expensive FriendshipsOct 13th, 2007 - 09:13:03
How expensive is it to be a friend and ally with the Turkey of today?
First of all you have to deny the genocide of 1910's, not even to discreetly place it in history books - you are not allowed to say it at all - in the fear of offending Turkishness and being brought to trial under the article 301 - of course if you are Turkish. And for those outside, such as the French, Israel and now the Americans, Turkey will cause a diplomatic row, so that its wrath can be felt in other ways.
And this is the same Turkey that wishes to be a part of the European Union. That doesn't want special partner status, but feels that it has the right to and deserves full accession into the EU.
Can EU parliamentarians afford to over look Turkey's belligerence? How will the EU deal with a Turkey that perhaps only wishes to join the EU, to up its importance in the world and to repair its broken economy (2/3 population rural farmers, with high illiteracy rates for women) something that Europe or the West had no part in – but on inclusion will be expected to pay for.
How will Europe deal with Turkey's efforts to Islamize itself, against the wishes of the secular military - once the gates are flung open and Turkish poor, illiterate and highly religious flood into Europe without control. Those in Istanbul are very different from those in the countryside, where if these people were allowed into Europe - Sharia law would be expected. What a juggling act that would be.
Possibly it is true that Turkey remembers how powerful it was under the Ottoman Empire and more than EU accession - desires its rise again. Europe could be letting itself in for a handful - in a Turkey that cares more about its greatness - than in the wider European family of governance. EU accession could be used as a stepping stone - for a more Islamic Turkey that has ambitions to be a world power.
With Turkey the chess moves are in the future and so we must take a clear look at what is happening now.
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