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US CONGRESS BACKS OFF FROM GENOCIDE VOTE
Times Online
October 17, 2007
(AFP/Getty Images)
The skulls and corpses of Armenian victims of Turkish deportation -
1.75 million were sent to Syria and Palestine, and 600,000 were killed
or starved Image :1 of 7
Jenny Booth and agencies
The United States Congress is backing off from its controversial plan
to pass a resolution condemning the mass killing of Armenians in 1915
as genocide.
The measure has caused outrage in Turkey - accused of responsibility
for the killings - and has proved an extra irritant at a time of high
tension between Turkey and the US over Iraq.
Turkey is today preparing to defy America and authorise its troops
to invade northern Iraq, in an attempt to wipe out Kurdish guerillas.
The Turkish Parliament is due to debate the military mission today,
and - with the support of the Government and most opposition parties -
is certain to give it authorisation when it is put to the vote.
Faced with this major setback at the hands of a country which has
until now been a key military ally in the Middle East, US House members
are backing away from the genocide vote which until last week seemed
certain to pass with a resounding majority.
"Turkey obviously feels they are getting poked in the eye over
something that happened a century ago, and maybe this isn't a good
time to be doing that," said Representative Allen Boyd, a Florida
Democrat who withdrew his support for the Bill on Monday night.
"I think it is a good resolution and horrible timing," Representative
Mike Ross, an Arkansas Democrat, told The New York Times.
Originally 226 of the 435 members of the House helped to write the
resolution, but at least 12 have backed out in the last day alone. A
group of senior House Democrats are planning to ask their leadership
to drop plans for a vote on the resolution, already condemned by the
Bush administration as dangerously provocative.
The White House has warned Turkey against unilateral action
in northern Iraq - the only part of the troubled country that has
remained relatively stable amid the violent political convulsions
that have torn apart the rest of Iraq.
Today's debate in the Turkish parliament is however likely to give
the country's army a free hand to cross the border and take any action
it feels necessary.
"This is self defence," said Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish Prime
Minister, in a television interview.
"Passage of this motion does not mean an immediate incursion will
follow, but we will act at the right time and under the right
conditions."
Turkey says there are about 3,000 Kurdish separatist guerillas of
the PKK party using northern Iraq as a base to launch attacks in
Turkey. In more than two decades of conflict between Kurdish rebels
and the Turkish state, more than 30,000 people have been killed.
The immediate trigger for Turkey's desire to invade was a deadly
ambush against Turkish troops last week, which increased the public
pressure on the Government to be seen to take action.
The Turkish Government's invasion threat has caused alarm in
Baghdad. The Iraqi Government held a crisis cabinet meeting last night,
and decided to send a high-level political and security delegation
to Turkey to seek a diplomatic solution.
Tareq al-Hashemi, an Iraqi Vice-President, is already in Turkey
lobbying the Prime Minister and the President against the use of
military force.
Turkey has blamed Iraq and the US for failing to take action to root
out the Kurdish guerillas in the mountains of northern Iraq. The
Government in Baghdad has however got little clout in the Kurdish
north, whose leaders have repeatedly refused to take up arms against
their ethnic kin in the PKK.
Brent Scowcroft, a former US National Security Council adviser, blamed
Washington for failing to do enough to address Turkish concerns about
the PKK.
"We have taken some steps but they have been very inadequate," said
Mr Scowcroft.
Antonio Guterres, the head of the United Nations refugee agency,
says he is deeply concerned that Turkish action could lead to big
displacements of people. The "relatively stable" area had until now
acted as a haven for Iraqis displaced from other parts of the country.
Turkey is tremendously sensitive over the fate of the Armenians, and
has prosecuted Turkish writers who dared to mention the subject. It
says that large numbers of both Christian Armenians and Muslim Ottoman
Turks died during the First World War, many during forced relocations,
but it refuses to sanction the idea that the intention was to eliminate
the Armenians.
America has a million citizens of Armenian extraction, most of them
staunchly behind the resolution in Congress.
Times Online
October 17, 2007
(AFP/Getty Images)
The skulls and corpses of Armenian victims of Turkish deportation -
1.75 million were sent to Syria and Palestine, and 600,000 were killed
or starved Image :1 of 7
Jenny Booth and agencies
The United States Congress is backing off from its controversial plan
to pass a resolution condemning the mass killing of Armenians in 1915
as genocide.
The measure has caused outrage in Turkey - accused of responsibility
for the killings - and has proved an extra irritant at a time of high
tension between Turkey and the US over Iraq.
Turkey is today preparing to defy America and authorise its troops
to invade northern Iraq, in an attempt to wipe out Kurdish guerillas.
The Turkish Parliament is due to debate the military mission today,
and - with the support of the Government and most opposition parties -
is certain to give it authorisation when it is put to the vote.
Faced with this major setback at the hands of a country which has
until now been a key military ally in the Middle East, US House members
are backing away from the genocide vote which until last week seemed
certain to pass with a resounding majority.
"Turkey obviously feels they are getting poked in the eye over
something that happened a century ago, and maybe this isn't a good
time to be doing that," said Representative Allen Boyd, a Florida
Democrat who withdrew his support for the Bill on Monday night.
"I think it is a good resolution and horrible timing," Representative
Mike Ross, an Arkansas Democrat, told The New York Times.
Originally 226 of the 435 members of the House helped to write the
resolution, but at least 12 have backed out in the last day alone. A
group of senior House Democrats are planning to ask their leadership
to drop plans for a vote on the resolution, already condemned by the
Bush administration as dangerously provocative.
The White House has warned Turkey against unilateral action
in northern Iraq - the only part of the troubled country that has
remained relatively stable amid the violent political convulsions
that have torn apart the rest of Iraq.
Today's debate in the Turkish parliament is however likely to give
the country's army a free hand to cross the border and take any action
it feels necessary.
"This is self defence," said Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish Prime
Minister, in a television interview.
"Passage of this motion does not mean an immediate incursion will
follow, but we will act at the right time and under the right
conditions."
Turkey says there are about 3,000 Kurdish separatist guerillas of
the PKK party using northern Iraq as a base to launch attacks in
Turkey. In more than two decades of conflict between Kurdish rebels
and the Turkish state, more than 30,000 people have been killed.
The immediate trigger for Turkey's desire to invade was a deadly
ambush against Turkish troops last week, which increased the public
pressure on the Government to be seen to take action.
The Turkish Government's invasion threat has caused alarm in
Baghdad. The Iraqi Government held a crisis cabinet meeting last night,
and decided to send a high-level political and security delegation
to Turkey to seek a diplomatic solution.
Tareq al-Hashemi, an Iraqi Vice-President, is already in Turkey
lobbying the Prime Minister and the President against the use of
military force.
Turkey has blamed Iraq and the US for failing to take action to root
out the Kurdish guerillas in the mountains of northern Iraq. The
Government in Baghdad has however got little clout in the Kurdish
north, whose leaders have repeatedly refused to take up arms against
their ethnic kin in the PKK.
Brent Scowcroft, a former US National Security Council adviser, blamed
Washington for failing to do enough to address Turkish concerns about
the PKK.
"We have taken some steps but they have been very inadequate," said
Mr Scowcroft.
Antonio Guterres, the head of the United Nations refugee agency,
says he is deeply concerned that Turkish action could lead to big
displacements of people. The "relatively stable" area had until now
acted as a haven for Iraqis displaced from other parts of the country.
Turkey is tremendously sensitive over the fate of the Armenians, and
has prosecuted Turkish writers who dared to mention the subject. It
says that large numbers of both Christian Armenians and Muslim Ottoman
Turks died during the First World War, many during forced relocations,
but it refuses to sanction the idea that the intention was to eliminate
the Armenians.
America has a million citizens of Armenian extraction, most of them
staunchly behind the resolution in Congress.