AP News, February 6th, 2007
Turkey's foreign minister said Tuesday a proposed resolution in Congress to condemn as genocide the early 20th century killings of up to 1.5 million Armenians would harm Turkish-American relations if it passes.
Abdullah Gul, speaking after meeting with top U.S. officials, described the possible resolution as an irritant to otherwise close cooperation with the United States on vital issues including bringing political stability to Iraq, preventing nuclear proliferation and connecting Asian energy supplies with European markets.
The Bush administration says it will work with members of Congress to head off the genocide resolution, but Gul warned the U.S. government to stay away from the dispute.
"I believe that Turkish-American relations should not be taken hostage by this issue," he said. "I see this as a real threat to our relationship."
The administration also sees the issue as a threat to relations with Turkey, a secular democracy with a majority Muslim population and a key strategic ally. The administration has opposed previous attempts by members of Congress to pass resolutions recognizing the 1915-1919 killings in Anatolia as an organized genocide.
Armenians cite numerous scholars who contend that Turkey's predecessor state, the Ottoman Empire, caused the Armenian deaths in a genocide.
The Turkish government has said the toll is wildly inflated, and Armenians were killed or displaced in civil unrest during the disarray surrounding the empire's collapse.
Turkey illustrated how seriously it takes the issue in October, when it said it would suspend military operations with France after French lawmakers voted in October to make it a crime to deny the killings were a genocide.
Gul made no such threats against the United States, which relies heavily on Incirlik Air Base, a major installation in southern Turkey, to launch operations into Iraq and Afghanistan. Incirlik was the northern base for warplanes enforcing no-fly rules against Saddam Hussein's Iraq after the 1991 Persian Gulf War.
Before meeting with Gul, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called Turkey "a strategic ally, a global partner (that) shares our values."
