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US SECRETARY OF STATE: ARMENIA AND TURKEY SHOULD CLEAR UP THEIR PROBLEMS BY THEMSELVES
Arminfo
2007-03-22 14:12:00
The Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Wednesday the U.S. should
not be involved in a dispute between Turkey and Armenia over whether
the killing of up to 1.5 million Armenians almost a century ago
constituted genocide.
As the ASSOCIATED PRESS reports, under questioning the sponsor of a
House resolution that would declare that Turkey's Ottoman predecessor
state committed genocide, Rice avoided answering whether she believed
there was any basis for historical debate on the matter. "What
we've encouraged the Turks and the Armenians to do is to have joint
historical commissions that can look at this, to have efforts to
examine their past, and in examining their past to get over it,"
she told House Appropriations subcommittee.
"I don't think it helps that process of reconciliation for the United
States to enter this debate at that level." "Madame Secretary, your
comments that there should be some kind of debate or discussion about
the genocide suggests that you have a question about whether genocide
occurred," said the resolution's sponsor, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif.
The Bush administration, which has heard threats from top Turkish
officials that passage of Schiff's resolution would damage relations,
has been trying to quash it. "I believe that this is something that
the Turks and Armenians are best to address," Rice told Schiff at
the hearing on the State Department's spending for foreign operations.
Arminfo
2007-03-22 14:12:00
The Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Wednesday the U.S. should
not be involved in a dispute between Turkey and Armenia over whether
the killing of up to 1.5 million Armenians almost a century ago
constituted genocide.
As the ASSOCIATED PRESS reports, under questioning the sponsor of a
House resolution that would declare that Turkey's Ottoman predecessor
state committed genocide, Rice avoided answering whether she believed
there was any basis for historical debate on the matter. "What
we've encouraged the Turks and the Armenians to do is to have joint
historical commissions that can look at this, to have efforts to
examine their past, and in examining their past to get over it,"
she told House Appropriations subcommittee.
"I don't think it helps that process of reconciliation for the United
States to enter this debate at that level." "Madame Secretary, your
comments that there should be some kind of debate or discussion about
the genocide suggests that you have a question about whether genocide
occurred," said the resolution's sponsor, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif.
The Bush administration, which has heard threats from top Turkish
officials that passage of Schiff's resolution would damage relations,
has been trying to quash it. "I believe that this is something that
the Turks and Armenians are best to address," Rice told Schiff at
the hearing on the State Department's spending for foreign operations.