Turkey warns Washington over Armenian resolution

Istanbul - Ankara has warned Washington that the passing of a Congressional resolution recognizing the large-scale massacre of Armenians during World War I as a "genocide" could harm relations between Turkey and the United States. The US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee is scheduled to vote on the non-binding resolution Thursday. If it passes, House speak Nancy Pelosi must decide if it will go to a full vote.

Turkey has dispatched several parliamentarians to Washington to lobby against the effort and Turkish President Abdullah Gul spoke to his American counterpart, Barack Obama, yesterday.

Turkish leaders have warned that the bill's passing could lead to a rupture in relations with Washington and could harm an already endangered reconciliation process between Turkey and Armenia.

"Turkish-US relations are experiencing their most successful period in history," Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday. "I hope that they will not be damaged by such initiatives."

Previous efforts to pass similar bills were stopped, mostly due to concerns in Washington over the fallout to relations with Turkey. When a House committee passed a genocide resolution in 2007, Ankara temporarily recalled its ambassador to Washington.

Armenians contend that up to 1.5 million of their own were systematically killed by the Ottoman Turks during World War I. Turkey has long denied the genocide claim, saying the number of Armenians killed is much lower and that the deaths were the result of violent turbulence that also affected other groups at the time.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/312445,turkey-warns-washington-over-armenian-resolution.html.