Turkey lobbies against US vote on Armenia genocide

[March 02, 2010]  ANKARA, Turkey (AP) -- Turkey this week feels more threatened by a few U.S. lawmakers than it does by its neighbors or alleged coup plots or even Kurdish militants.

Turkish politicians fear if a U.S. congressional panel recognizes the World War-I era killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks as genocide, that would not only damage ties with its longtime U.S. ally but hurt U.S.-led efforts to help Turkey end a century of enmity with archrival Armenia.

Ahead of Thursday's vote at the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, Turkey issued blunt warnings urging the Congress to "act with responsibility," and its lawmakers lobbied in Washington against yet another resolution on the stinging issue.

This time, however, they do not have the U.S. administration on their side.

Past U.S. administrations have defeated similar resolutions through public cajoling about U.S. national security interests and behind-the-scenes lobbying. So far, however, the Obama administration has taken no public position on the measure and President Barack Obama said as a candidate that he believed the killings were genocide.

A positive vote would allow the resolution to be considered by the full House. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said she will wait to see the committee result before deciding whether to bring it up for vote.

At stake is friendly U.S. ties with Turkey, NATO's sole Muslim member, which is a key supply route for U.S. troops in Iraq. Turkey is also a symbolically important member of the U.S.-led coalition forces in Afghanistan, even though Turkish forces only patrol the Afghan capital and do not fight the Taliban, fearing a backlash from Muslims.

Armenian-American groups have sought for decades to get the U.S. Congress to call the killings genocide. Historians estimate that up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed by Ottoman Turks around World War I, an event widely viewed by scholars as the first genocide of the 20th century.

Turkey denies that the deaths constituted genocide, saying the toll has been inflated and those killed were victims of civil war and unrest.

"A symbolic issue could cost cooperation between Turkey and the United States," said Ilter Turan, a professor of political science at Istanbul's Bilgi University.

In 2007, when the House Armed Services Committee passed such a resolution, Turkey promptly recalled its ambassador, and U.S. officials feared the Turks might cut off American access to a Turkish air base essential to operations in Iraq. After intensive lobbying by top Bush administration officials, the resolution was not considered by the full House.

Turkish leaders now also warn that a positive vote would also threaten a landmark agreement with Armenia, signed in October under the auspices of U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. The agreement envisaged the two neighbors establishing diplomatic ties and reopening their shared border.

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

"I maintain trust in the leadership and common sense of President Obama, who has been closely following efforts toward the normalization of ties with Armenia," Erdogan added.

It was not clear if the Jewish lobby, which extended a crucial hand in stopping past resolutions, would rush to Turkey's help this time. Erdogan angered many Jews when he accused Israel of "inhumane" treatment of Palestinians.

[Associated Press; By SELCAN HACAOGLU]

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