Africa

Home page

Africa

Turkey seeks to avert genocide vote in US Congress

04 March 2010 03:43 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. Turkey’s foreign minister said Wednesday he hopes the Obama administration will try to prevent a U.S. congressional panel from recognizing the World War I-era killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks as genocide, APA reports quoting Associated Press.
Ahmet Davutoglu told Turkish reporters during a visit to Egypt that he expects "the U.S. administration to give the necessary message" to the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, according to the state-run Anatolia news agency.
"If it passes, then the Obama administration should try to prevent it from being voted by Congress," Anatolia quoted Davutoglu as saying.
The House committee is set to consider the issue Thursday. A "yes" vote would allow the resolution to be considered by the full House. Historians estimate up to 1.5 million Armenians were victims of genocide by Ottoman Turks. Turkey denies that.
Past U.S. administrations have blocked similar resolutions through public cajoling about U.S. national security interests and behind-the-scenes lobbying. The Obama administration, however, has not taken any public position on the issue so far.
Turkey warned this week that recognition of the killings as genocide would not only damage ties with its longtime U.S. ally but also hurt U.S.-led efforts to end a century of enmity between Turkey and Armenia.
Turkey, NATO’s only Muslim member, is a key supply route for U.S. troops in Iraq and part of the U.S.-led coalition forces in Afghanistan.
Turkey and Armenia last year took steps to normalize ties by establishing diplomatic relations and reopening their shared border. The agreements still need to be ratified by both countries’ parliaments, and it is unclear how they would resolve the bitter dispute over the Armenian deaths.
Turkey acknowledges that many Armenians were killed around World War I, but denies that the deaths constituted genocide. Turkey says the death toll has been inflated and that those killed were victims of civil war and unrest.
Davutoglu did not respond to a question on what actions Turkey would take should the resolution be approved.
In 2007, when the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee passed such a resolution, Turkey promptly recalled its ambassador, and U.S. officials feared the Turks might cut off American access to a Turkish air base essential to operations in Iraq. After intensive lobbying by top Bush administration officials, the resolution was not considered by the full House.