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US genocide bill angers Turks
Simon Tisdall
Friday February 16, 2007
The Guardian
It seems an odd way to treat a friend. Washington's relations with
Turkey, a key Nato ally, have been on the slide since 2003 when
Ankara's parliament refused to allow US troops to transit into Iraq.
That infuriated the Bush administration. Ensuing chaos in Iraq and the
impetus the occupation has given Kurdish secessionism infuriated Turks
in their turn. Iran and Hamas are other points of strain. One recent
poll found that 81% of Turks disapprove of US policies.
Now the relationship is heading for a potentially spectacular rupture
following the decision of the US House of Representatives' newly
installed Democratic leadership to follow France in endorsing a bill
officially recognising as genocide the 1915 killings of Christian
Armenians by Muslim Turks. As matters stand, there is sufficient
bipartisan support to pass the measure if, as expected, it is put to a
vote in the next few weeks.
The genocide label is an ultra-sensitive issue in Turkey. It has long
claimed that mass killings at the time by both sides were part of the
civil upheavals accompanying the collapse of the Ottoman empire. "If
this measure is adopted it will create a very serious problem in
US-Turkish relations," a senior Turkish official said yesterday. "You
cannot put Turkey in the same shoes as the Nazis." Armenia (and the
Armenian diaspora) should accept a proposal by Turkey's prime minister,
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to set up a joint commission to study what
happened, the official said.
But politics in Ankara and Washington are stoking confrontation. A
presidential election is due in Turkey in May, followed by
parliamentary polls this autumn. Neither Mr Erdogan, tipped as the next
president, nor other candidates can ignore intense national feelings
stirred by the genocide debate. At the same time, the Democratic
speaker, Nancy Pelosi, like other House members from California, has a
vociferous Armenian-American constituency to placate. When Turkey's
foreign minister, Abdullah Gul, was in Washington last week, she
refused to meet him. "Local politics must not be allowed to poison
strategic ties," Mr Gul said later. Passage of the bill would create a
"nightmare".
Calls are already being heard in Turkey for a downgrading of bilateral
military cooperation, including logistical assistance to US forces in
Iraq. General Yasar Buyukanit, chief of the Turkish general staff, went
to the Pentagon this week to spell out the possible damaging
consequences.
"Turkey is playing the security card against the genocide bill," wrote
columnist Mehmet Ali Birand of the Turkish Daily News. That meant
reminding the Americans of Turkey's contributions in Afghanistan and
Kosovo, its supportive ties to Israel - Ehud Olmert was in Ankara
yesterday - and the way it "actively participates in communications
between Iran and the US".
The White House opposes the bill but may be unable to stop it.
Meanwhile, the US is urging Turkish "outreach" to Armenia in the wake
of the Hrant Dink murder.
But new reasons for killing off the resolution are emerging every day.
One is that a surge in anti-Americanism following its passage could
translate into a Turkish decision to ignore Washington and send its
troops into northern Iraq, with potentially disastrous consequences for
US efforts to stabilise the country.
The senior Turkish official said there was no plan to intervene and no
link to the genocide bill. But Ankara is increasingly impatient over US
reluctance to suppress armed PKK separatists who launch raids into
south-east Turkey from Iraqi Kurdistan. And according to Asli Aydinbas,
of Sabah newspaper, a "limited and defined" Turkish military
intervention in Iraq is already on the cards.
"The US government believes passage of the Armenian resolution would
make a cross-border operation more likely," he said. "Even a debate on
the floor of the House of Representatives would end Washington's power
to deter such an operation." Seen this way, the genocide bill could
spark a whole new bloodbath.
Simon Tisdall
Friday February 16, 2007
The Guardian
It seems an odd way to treat a friend. Washington's relations with
Turkey, a key Nato ally, have been on the slide since 2003 when
Ankara's parliament refused to allow US troops to transit into Iraq.
That infuriated the Bush administration. Ensuing chaos in Iraq and the
impetus the occupation has given Kurdish secessionism infuriated Turks
in their turn. Iran and Hamas are other points of strain. One recent
poll found that 81% of Turks disapprove of US policies.
Now the relationship is heading for a potentially spectacular rupture
following the decision of the US House of Representatives' newly
installed Democratic leadership to follow France in endorsing a bill
officially recognising as genocide the 1915 killings of Christian
Armenians by Muslim Turks. As matters stand, there is sufficient
bipartisan support to pass the measure if, as expected, it is put to a
vote in the next few weeks.
The genocide label is an ultra-sensitive issue in Turkey. It has long
claimed that mass killings at the time by both sides were part of the
civil upheavals accompanying the collapse of the Ottoman empire. "If
this measure is adopted it will create a very serious problem in
US-Turkish relations," a senior Turkish official said yesterday. "You
cannot put Turkey in the same shoes as the Nazis." Armenia (and the
Armenian diaspora) should accept a proposal by Turkey's prime minister,
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to set up a joint commission to study what
happened, the official said.
But politics in Ankara and Washington are stoking confrontation. A
presidential election is due in Turkey in May, followed by
parliamentary polls this autumn. Neither Mr Erdogan, tipped as the next
president, nor other candidates can ignore intense national feelings
stirred by the genocide debate. At the same time, the Democratic
speaker, Nancy Pelosi, like other House members from California, has a
vociferous Armenian-American constituency to placate. When Turkey's
foreign minister, Abdullah Gul, was in Washington last week, she
refused to meet him. "Local politics must not be allowed to poison
strategic ties," Mr Gul said later. Passage of the bill would create a
"nightmare".
Calls are already being heard in Turkey for a downgrading of bilateral
military cooperation, including logistical assistance to US forces in
Iraq. General Yasar Buyukanit, chief of the Turkish general staff, went
to the Pentagon this week to spell out the possible damaging
consequences.
"Turkey is playing the security card against the genocide bill," wrote
columnist Mehmet Ali Birand of the Turkish Daily News. That meant
reminding the Americans of Turkey's contributions in Afghanistan and
Kosovo, its supportive ties to Israel - Ehud Olmert was in Ankara
yesterday - and the way it "actively participates in communications
between Iran and the US".
The White House opposes the bill but may be unable to stop it.
Meanwhile, the US is urging Turkish "outreach" to Armenia in the wake
of the Hrant Dink murder.
But new reasons for killing off the resolution are emerging every day.
One is that a surge in anti-Americanism following its passage could
translate into a Turkish decision to ignore Washington and send its
troops into northern Iraq, with potentially disastrous consequences for
US efforts to stabilise the country.
The senior Turkish official said there was no plan to intervene and no
link to the genocide bill. But Ankara is increasingly impatient over US
reluctance to suppress armed PKK separatists who launch raids into
south-east Turkey from Iraqi Kurdistan. And according to Asli Aydinbas,
of Sabah newspaper, a "limited and defined" Turkish military
intervention in Iraq is already on the cards.
"The US government believes passage of the Armenian resolution would
make a cross-border operation more likely," he said. "Even a debate on
the floor of the House of Representatives would end Washington's power
to deter such an operation." Seen this way, the genocide bill could
spark a whole new bloodbath.