Bush urges rejection of Armenia genocide resolution
Wed Oct 10, 2007 12:14pm EDT
By Tabassum Zakaria
WA****NGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush on Wednesday urged U.S.
lawmakers to reject a congressional resolution calling the 1915 massacres
of
Armenians genocide, saying it would do "great harm" to U.S. relations with
Turkey.
"This resolution is not the right response to these historic mass
killings,"
Bush told re****ters at the White House.
The House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee is to consider the
Armenian genocide resolution later on Wednesday. If it p*****, House
Speaker
Nancy Pelosi, a longtime sup****ter of the measure, could then decide to
bring it
before the full House for a vote.
Many Democrats, who control Congress, sup****t the resolution, which has
226
co-sponsors, more than half the House.
The measure comes at a delicate time for Turkey-U.S. relations.
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, who telephoned Bush last week about
the
Armenian resolution, confirmed on Wednesday his government was drawing up
plans
to authorize a cross-border incursion into northern Iraq to strike Kurdish
rebels after 15 Turkish soldiers were killed in attacks in recent days.
Wa****ngton has urged Turkey not to send troops into mainly Kurdish
northern Iraq
for fear of destabilizing the country's most peaceful region.
In calling on lawmakers to reject the Armenian measure, Bush said: "Its
passage
would do great harm to our relations with a key ally in NATO and in the
global
war on terror."
The bulk of supplies for U.S. troops in Iraq pass via Turkey's Incirlik
airbase.
Turkey also provides thousands of truck drivers and other workers for U.S.
operations in Iraq.
HARD LOBBYING
Turkey has warned of damage to bilateral ties if Congress p***** the
Armenian
bill, and a delegation of Turkish lawmakers visited Capitol Hill on
Tuesday to
underscore that point.
Turkey strongly rejects the Armenian position, backed by many Western
historians
and a growing number of foreign parliaments, that up to 1.5 million
Armenians
suffered genocide at the hands of Ottoman Turks during World War One.
Ankara says many Muslim Turks as well as Christian Armenians died in
inter-ethnic conflict as the Ottoman Empire collapsed.
The resolution recognizing the 1915 mass killings of Armenians by Turks as
genocide was introduced in the House by Rep. Adam Schiff, a California
Democrat
who has a large number of Armenian-Americans in his district.
Similar resolutions have been introduced in the House for years, with
Armenian-American groups lobbying hard for passage.
The proposals have sometimes passed committees. But while Republicans
controlled
Congress, they blocked a vote by the full House, saying they did not want
to
embarrass Turkey.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the resolution would be "very
destabilizing to our efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan because Turkey, as an
im****tant strategic ally, is very critical in sup****ting the efforts that
we are
making in these crucial areas."
Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates made statements to re****ters at
the
White House, emphasizing the administration's concern that the resolution
would
hurt U.S. ties with Turkey.
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