Why the hell would the House choose this particular time to make a grand pronouncement about something that happened a century ago?
Honestly, it is a serious question.
Turkey can offer our troops a fairly quick way out of the Quagmire when it comes time to move our troops, so why are we pissing off Turkey?
Turkey Threatens Repercussions for US
By Christopher Torchia
The Associated Press Thursday 12 October 2007
Ankara, Turkey - Turkey, which is a key supply route to U.S. troops in Iraq, recalled its ambassador to Washington on Thursday and warned of serious repercussions if Congress labels the killing of Armenians by Turks a century ago as genocide.
Ordered after a House committee endorsed the genocide measure, the summons of the ambassador for consultations was a further sign of the deteriorating relations between two longtime allies and the potential for new turmoil in an already troubled region.
Egeman Bagis, an aide to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, told Turkish media that Turkey - a conduit for many of the supplies shipped to American bases in both Iraq and Afghanistan - might have to "cut logistical support to the U.S."
Analysts also have speculated the resolution could make Turkey more inclined to send troops into northern Iraq to hunt Turkish Kurd rebels, a move opposed by the U.S. because it would disrupt one of the few relatively stable and peaceful Iraqi areas.
"There are steps that we will take," Turkey's prime minister told reporters, but without elaboration. It also wasn't clear if he meant his government would act immediately or wait to see what happens to the resolution in Congress.
He declined to answer questions about whether Turkey might shut down Incirlik air base in southern Turkey, a major cargo hub for U.S. and allied military forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. Turkey's Mediterranean port of Iskenderun is also used to ferry goods to American troops.
"You don't talk about such things, you just do them," Erdogan said.
The measure before Congress is just a nonbinding resolution without the force of law, but the debate has incensed Turkey's government.
The relationship between the two NATO allies, whose troops fought together in the Korean War in 1950-53, have stumbled in the past. They hit a low in 2003, when Turkey's parliament refused to allow U.S. forces use their country as a staging ground for the invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.
But while the threat of repercussions against the U.S. is appealing for many Turks, the country's leaders know such a move could hurt Turkey's standing as a reliable ally of the West and its ambitions to be a mediator on the international stage.
The Turks did suspend military ties with France last year after parliament's lower house approved a bill that would have made it a crime to deny the mass killings of Armenians in Turkey amounted to genocide. But Turkey has much more to lose from cutting ties to the U.S.
The United States is one of its major business partners, with $11 billion in trade last year, and the U.S. defense industry provides much of the Turkish military's equipment.
Turkey's ambassador in Washington, Nabi Sensoy, was ordered home for discussions with the Turkish leadership about what is happening in Congress, Foreign Minister spokesman Levent Bilman said. He said Sensoy would go back after seven to 10 days.
"We are not withdrawing our ambassador. We have asked him to come to Turkey for some consultations," Bilman said. "The ambassador was given instructions to return and will come at his earliest convenience."
The Bush administration, which is lobbying strongly in hopes of persuading Congress to reject the resolution, stressed the need for good relations with Turkey.
"We look forward to his quick return and will continue to work to maintain strong U.S.-Turkish relations," said Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for the National Security Council. "We remain opposed to House Resolution 106 because of the grave harm it could bring to the national security of the United States."
Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the measure is damaging relations at a time when U.S. forces in Iraq rely heavily on Turkish permission to use their airspace for cargo flights.
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 there. U.S. bases also get water and other supplies carried in overland by Turkish truckers who cross into Iraq's northern Kurdish region.
In addition, C-17 cargo planes fly military supplies to U.S. soldiers in remote areas of Iraq from Incirlik, avoiding the use of Iraqi roads vulnerable to bomb attacks. U.S. officials say the arrangement helps reduce American casualties.
U.S.-Turkish ties already had been strained by Turkey's complaint the U.S. hasn't done enough to stop Turkish Kurd rebels from using bases in northern Iraq to stage attacks in southeastern Turkey, a predominantly Kurdish region where tens of thousands have died in fighting since 1984.
Turkish warplanes and helicopter gunships attacked suspected positions of Kurdish rebels on the border this week and Turkey's parliament was expected to vote next week on a proposal to allow the military to pursue a large-scale offensive in northern Iraq.
The U.S. ambassador to Turkey, Ross Wilson, was invited to the Foreign Ministry, where officials conveyed their "unease" over the resolution in Congress and asked the Bush administration do all in its power to stop passage by the full House, a Foreign Ministry official said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to make press statements.
Historians estimate up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed by Ottoman Turks around the time of World War I. Turkey denies the deaths constituted genocide, saying the killings didn't come from a coordinated campaign but rather during unrest accompanying the Ottoman Empire's collapse.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee passed the resolution Wednesday despite intense lobbying by Turkish officials and the opposition from President Bush. The vote was a triumph for well-organized Armenian-American interest groups that 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, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi indicated they were committed to going forward.
"Why do it now? Because there's never a good time and all of us in the Democratic leadership have supported" it, she said.
Turkish officials said the House had no business to get involved in writing history.
"It is not possible to accept such an accusation of a crime which was never committed by the Turkish nation," Turkey's government said after the committee adopted the measure.
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Associated Press writers C. Onur Ant in Istanbul and Suzan Fraser in Ankara contributed to this report.
Go to Original
Turks Angry Over House Armenian Genocide Vote
By Sebnem Arsu
The New York Times
Friday 12 October 2007
Why isn't all war genocide? It is the wholesale slaughter of one group of people by another. So, Armenians:. Who are Armenians. Is that not just a made-up word, like Iraqis or Peruvians, Cherokees, Mayans, Navajo...whatever.
What makes one type of slaughter genocide and another type war. I don't get it? What makes us different: skin color, religion, what we call ourselves, national boundaries? This planet makes less and less sense with each day that passes.
The Mayans and a number of other calender makers and keepers say that all of of this insanity is going to come to some kind of end on Dec. 21, 2012. Thanks be to God!
Istanbul - Turkey reacted angrily Thursday to a House committee vote in Washington to condemn as genocide the mass killings of Armenians in Turkey that began during World War I, recalling its ambassador from Washington and threatening to withdraw its support for the Iraq war.
In uncharacteristically strong language, President Abdullah Gul criticized the vote by the House Foreign Relations Committee in a statement to the semi-official Anatolian News Agency, and warned that the decision could work against the United States.
"Unfortunately, some politicians in the United States have once more dismissed calls for common sense, and made an attempt to sacrifice big issues for minor domestic political games," President Gul said.
The House vote comes at a particularly inopportune time. Washington has called on Turkey to show restraint as its military mobilizes on the border with Iraq, threatening an incursion against Kurdish insurgents. On Thursday, Turkish warplanes were reported to be flying close to the border, but not crossing it.
The possibility of Turkish military intervention in Iraq against Kurdish separatists has long worried American officials for its potential to ignite a wider war. On Wednesday, the Turkish government began the process of gaining parliamentary approval to conduct cross-border operations.
The committee vote in the House, though nonbinding and largely symbolic, rebuffed an intense campaign by the White House and earlier warnings from Turkey's government that such a vote would gravely strain relations with the United States.
In Washington, the Bush administration tried to ease the hard feelings between the countries, and vowed to try to defeat the resolution on Capitol Hill.
"One of the reasons we opposed the resolution in the House yesterday is that the president has expressed on behalf of the American people our horror at the tragedy of 1915," said Dana Perino, President Bush's chief spokeswoman. "But at the same time, we have national security concerns, and many of our troops and supplies go through Turkey. They are a very important ally in the war on terror, and we are going to continue to try to work with them. And we hope that the House does not put forward a full vote."
Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the House would definitely take up the measure. "I said if it comes out of committee, it will go to the floor," she told reporters. "Now it has come out of committee, and it will go to the floor."
In Turkey, there was widespread expectation that the House committee vote and any further steps would damage relations between the countries.
Turkish officials and lawmakers warned that if the resolution were approved by the full House, they would reconsider supporting the American war effort in Iraq, which includes permission to ship essential supplies through Turkey from a major air base at Incirlik, in southern Turkey.
Turkey's prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, refused to say what effect the resolution might have on American access to the base, but he did not exclude the possibility of a policy change. "This step is contrary to the U.S. interests," he said on Thursday, "and is an unfortunate decision taken by those who cannot acknowledge Turkey's position."
Already the top Turkish naval commander, Adm. Metin Atac, canceled a trip to the United States for a conference following Wednesday's vote, an American Embassy official confirmed. Admiral Atac's office did not specify any reasons for the cancellation.
For his part, Ross Wilson, the United States ambassador to Turkey, also tried to calm relations, issuing a statement on Thursday saying that the partnership between Turkey and the United States was strong and would remain so. He added that he, President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice regretted the committee decision.
He was nonetheless later summoned to the Foreign Ministry in Ankara, the capital, to be briefed on Turkey's disappointment.
"We had a meeting with Mr. Wilson during which we expressed our concerns about the developments," said a spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry. "We drew attention to bad reflections on our bilateral relations and kindly requested his assistance in preventing the passage of the bill."
The House decision prompted reaction on the streets of Ankara and Istanbul. The youth branch of the extreme-leftist Workers' Party laid a black wreath at the United States Embassy and spray-painted the Turkish flag onto an embassy wall.
A total of 1.5 million Armenians were killed in the Armenian genocide, which began in 1915 as part of a systematic campaign by the fraying Ottoman Empire to drive Armenians out of eastern Turkey. Turks have vehemently denied the designation, while acknowledging that hundreds of thousands of Armenians died. They contend that the deaths resulted from the war that ended with the creation of modern Turkey in 1923.
Identifying Armenian killings as genocide is considered an insult against Turkish identity, a crime under article 301 of the Turkish penal code.
In an Istanbul court on Thursday, Sarkis Seropyan and Arat Dink, the brother of Hrant Dink, the newspaper editor who was killed by a 17-year-old gunman in January, received suspended jail sentences for one year for violating that law. They reprinted other newspaper accounts of Hrant Dink's statement saying that Armenians suffered genocide at the hands of the Ottoman Army in the 1910s, their lawyer, Fethiye Cetin, said.
Not only writers of Armenian origin, but also the Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk have been charged under the same law, although his case was dropped under heavy international pressure.
A State Department spokesman, Tom Casey, said that United States diplomats were reaching out to their Turkish counterparts to express not only their opposition to the resolution but "our commitment with Congress on this to see that the full House, in fact, votes to defeat this resolution."
Mr. Casey said that State Department and White House officials would try to persuade "various members" of the House on how to vote.
Ms. Pelosi said she did not have a date in mind for bringing the issue to the floor, but that it would be brought up this session, which is to end around Nov. 16. Whatever happens, she insisted, relations between the United States and Turkey will remain strong.
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David Stout contributed reporting from Washington.
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. I.U. has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is I.U endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)
The Nazis, Fascists and Communists were political parties before they became enemies of liberty and mass murderers.
