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TURKEY MAY CUT U.S. SUPPORT; OVER ARMENIA. CONGRESS MIGHT RECOGNIZE GENOCIDE
The Gazette (Montreal)
October 9, 2007 Tuesday
Final Edition
Turkey may cut logistic support to U.S. troops in Iraq if the
U.S. Congress backs a bill branding as genocide the 1915 massacres
of Armenians by Ottoman Turks, a senior ruling AK Party lawmaker was
quoted as saying yesterday.
Congress's foreign affairs committee is expected to approve a bill on
the genocide issue tomorrow and speaker Nancy Pelosi of California,
a known supporter of the Armenian cause, could then decide to bring
it to the House floor for a vote.
Turkey, a NATO ally of Washington, strongly denies Armenian claims,
backed by many Western historians and a number of foreign parliaments,
including Canada's, that up to 1.5 million ethnic Armenians suffered
genocide at Turkish hands during the First World War.
It says many Muslim Turks as well as Christian Armenians died in
inter-ethnic conflict as the Ottoman Empire collapsed.
"Don't accept this bill. If you do, we will be obliged to do many
things we do not want to do," the top-selling Hurriyet daily quoted
AK Party deputy leader Egemen Bagis as saying.
"The Americans depend on Turkey for a large part of their logistical
support in Iraq. We would be obliged to to cut this support," he said.
Ankara has many times urged foreign countries, including the
United States, not to pass such resolutions, saying historians,
not politicians, should judge historic events.
Last year, Turkey froze military and some commercial co-operation with
France after the National Assembly backed a bill that would make it
a crime to deny the Armenian genocide. The bill never became law.
U.S. forces in both Iraq and Afghanistan get many of their supplies
via the Incirlik military base in southern Turkey.
Bagis declined to say what specific measures Turkey might take but
said: "This bill might please Armenian Americans for a few days
but it would definitely have a long-lasting negative effect on the
relationship between two strategic allies."
From: Baghdasarian
The Gazette (Montreal)
October 9, 2007 Tuesday
Final Edition
Turkey may cut logistic support to U.S. troops in Iraq if the
U.S. Congress backs a bill branding as genocide the 1915 massacres
of Armenians by Ottoman Turks, a senior ruling AK Party lawmaker was
quoted as saying yesterday.
Congress's foreign affairs committee is expected to approve a bill on
the genocide issue tomorrow and speaker Nancy Pelosi of California,
a known supporter of the Armenian cause, could then decide to bring
it to the House floor for a vote.
Turkey, a NATO ally of Washington, strongly denies Armenian claims,
backed by many Western historians and a number of foreign parliaments,
including Canada's, that up to 1.5 million ethnic Armenians suffered
genocide at Turkish hands during the First World War.
It says many Muslim Turks as well as Christian Armenians died in
inter-ethnic conflict as the Ottoman Empire collapsed.
"Don't accept this bill. If you do, we will be obliged to do many
things we do not want to do," the top-selling Hurriyet daily quoted
AK Party deputy leader Egemen Bagis as saying.
"The Americans depend on Turkey for a large part of their logistical
support in Iraq. We would be obliged to to cut this support," he said.
Ankara has many times urged foreign countries, including the
United States, not to pass such resolutions, saying historians,
not politicians, should judge historic events.
Last year, Turkey froze military and some commercial co-operation with
France after the National Assembly backed a bill that would make it
a crime to deny the Armenian genocide. The bill never became law.
U.S. forces in both Iraq and Afghanistan get many of their supplies
via the Incirlik military base in southern Turkey.
Bagis declined to say what specific measures Turkey might take but
said: "This bill might please Armenian Americans for a few days
but it would definitely have a long-lasting negative effect on the
relationship between two strategic allies."
From: Baghdasarian