Tweet
The Guardian, UK
Oct 12 2007
Turks threaten to 'play hardball' with US after genocide vote
· Armenians row could hit supply links to Iraq
· Bill may come before full house today
Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
Friday October 12, 2007
The Guardian
Turkey yesterday recalled its ambassador in Washington and warned
that it would "play hardball" to persuade the US Congress to abandon
a bill recognising the historic persecution of Armenians. The
diplomatic rebuke to Washington came amid furious lobbying by Bush
administration officials to try to roll back the bill.
The measure, which was endorsed by the House of Representatives'
foreign affairs committee on Wednesday, in defiance of warnings from
administration and Turkish officials, would recognise the 1915
massacres and forced deportations of Armenians as genocide.
A house vote on the bill could come as early as today, although the
resolution's future in the Senate is far less certain.
A Turkish foreign ministry spokesman said yesterday the ambassador,
Nabi Sensoy, would stay in Ankara for about a week or 10 days. "We
are not withdrawing our ambassador. We have asked him to come to
Turkey for some consultations," the spokesman, Levent Bilman, told
reporters.
Meanwhile, the US ambassador to Turkey, Ross Wilson, was summoned to
the foreign ministry in Ankara, where officials expressed their
"unease".
In Washington a visiting adviser to the Turkish prime minister,
Tayyip Erdogan, suggested there would be more such manoeuvres to
come. "I can assure you Turkey knows how to play hardball," the
adviser, Egeman Bagis, told reporters.
The anti-US backlash comes only days before the Turkish parliament is
expected to vote for broader intervention in northern Iraq following
Wednesday's air strikes on suspected Kurdish rebel positions. Such a
move is opposed by the Bush administration and the EU, which fear
disrupting the relative peace in northern Iraq. The EU foreign policy
chief, Javier Solana, told reporters in Brussels yesterday: "Any
possibility of complicating even more the security situation in Iraq
is something that should not be welcome." However, widespread anger
over both Kurdish rebel attacks and the genocide bill could push
Turkish legislators into supporting military strikes.
The response from Ankara yesterday to the vote in the house committee
was predictably harsh. In a statement on his website the Turkish
president, Abdullah Gul, called the resolution "unacceptable", and
said it would harm US-Turkish relations.
The sentiments were expanded in a statement from the Turkish foreign
ministry which said: "The committee's approval of this resolution was
an irresponsible move, which at a greatly sensitive time will make
relations with a friend and ally, and a strategic partnership
nurtured over generations, more difficult."
Bush administration officials were almost as scathing, and said
yesterday that they feared Turkey would cut vital supply lines to
Iraq. About 70% of US air cargo for Iraq goes through Turkey. The
Turkish press also condemned the US Congress, with the Hurriyet
newspaper describing the measure as a "bill of hatred".
Public anger at the Kurdistan Workers party (PKK) rebels is high,
after the killing of 13 Turkish soldiers on Sunday. However, Mr
Erdogan said there would not necessarily be an immediate intervention
against the rebels, believed to be based in northern Iraq. "There
have been 24 operations so far. Assessments have shown that they
haven't yielded that much of a result. We are taking this into
account," Mr Erdogan told CNN's Turkish language service.
Oct 12 2007
Turks threaten to 'play hardball' with US after genocide vote
· Armenians row could hit supply links to Iraq
· Bill may come before full house today
Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
Friday October 12, 2007
The Guardian
Turkey yesterday recalled its ambassador in Washington and warned
that it would "play hardball" to persuade the US Congress to abandon
a bill recognising the historic persecution of Armenians. The
diplomatic rebuke to Washington came amid furious lobbying by Bush
administration officials to try to roll back the bill.
The measure, which was endorsed by the House of Representatives'
foreign affairs committee on Wednesday, in defiance of warnings from
administration and Turkish officials, would recognise the 1915
massacres and forced deportations of Armenians as genocide.
A house vote on the bill could come as early as today, although the
resolution's future in the Senate is far less certain.
A Turkish foreign ministry spokesman said yesterday the ambassador,
Nabi Sensoy, would stay in Ankara for about a week or 10 days. "We
are not withdrawing our ambassador. We have asked him to come to
Turkey for some consultations," the spokesman, Levent Bilman, told
reporters.
Meanwhile, the US ambassador to Turkey, Ross Wilson, was summoned to
the foreign ministry in Ankara, where officials expressed their
"unease".
In Washington a visiting adviser to the Turkish prime minister,
Tayyip Erdogan, suggested there would be more such manoeuvres to
come. "I can assure you Turkey knows how to play hardball," the
adviser, Egeman Bagis, told reporters.
The anti-US backlash comes only days before the Turkish parliament is
expected to vote for broader intervention in northern Iraq following
Wednesday's air strikes on suspected Kurdish rebel positions. Such a
move is opposed by the Bush administration and the EU, which fear
disrupting the relative peace in northern Iraq. The EU foreign policy
chief, Javier Solana, told reporters in Brussels yesterday: "Any
possibility of complicating even more the security situation in Iraq
is something that should not be welcome." However, widespread anger
over both Kurdish rebel attacks and the genocide bill could push
Turkish legislators into supporting military strikes.
The response from Ankara yesterday to the vote in the house committee
was predictably harsh. In a statement on his website the Turkish
president, Abdullah Gul, called the resolution "unacceptable", and
said it would harm US-Turkish relations.
The sentiments were expanded in a statement from the Turkish foreign
ministry which said: "The committee's approval of this resolution was
an irresponsible move, which at a greatly sensitive time will make
relations with a friend and ally, and a strategic partnership
nurtured over generations, more difficult."
Bush administration officials were almost as scathing, and said
yesterday that they feared Turkey would cut vital supply lines to
Iraq. About 70% of US air cargo for Iraq goes through Turkey. The
Turkish press also condemned the US Congress, with the Hurriyet
newspaper describing the measure as a "bill of hatred".
Public anger at the Kurdistan Workers party (PKK) rebels is high,
after the killing of 13 Turkish soldiers on Sunday. However, Mr
Erdogan said there would not necessarily be an immediate intervention
against the rebels, believed to be based in northern Iraq. "There
have been 24 operations so far. Assessments have shown that they
haven't yielded that much of a result. We are taking this into
account," Mr Erdogan told CNN's Turkish language service.