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US stance on Armenian massacres may ease Turkey-US tensions: official
March 30, 2005
ISTANBUL (AFP) - The United States will help ease tensions with Turkey if it
sticks to its stance of not recognizing the killings of Armenians under the
Ottoman Empire as genocide, Anatolia news agency quoted a senior Turkish
official as saying.
Turkey expects Washington "to maintain the sound position on the issue it
has displayed in the past as a first step... (towards) leaving current
disturbances behind so that Turkish-US ties can progress on a healthy
basis," the head of the National Security Council, Yigit Alpogan, said.
"We believe the American administration will not give the green light to
slanders which render all Turks as children of murderers," Alpogan told a
gathering of a Turkish-American business group.
Washington has so far refrained from terming the World War I massacres as
genocide despite pressure from pro-Armenian lobbies.
On April 24 Armenians will mark the 90th anniversary of the beginning of the
controversial massacres.
Ankara is concerned that the Armenians will this year step up their campaign
to have the events acknowledged as genocide by Washington at a time when
Turkish-US relations are markedly strained by differences over Iraq.
US President George W. Bush last year described the massacres as "one of the
most horrible tragedies of the 20th century."
Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their kinsmen perished in orchestrated
killings and deportations between 1915 and 1917.
Turkey categorically rejects allegations of genocide, saying that 300,000
Armenians and thousands of Turks were killed in what was a civil strife
during World War I when the Armenians rose up against their Ottoman rulers
and sided with invading Russian troops.
In October 2000, a draft congressional resolution acknowledging the killings
as genocide was pulled from the House floor following an intervention by
then president Bill Clinton, who argued that the United State not damage its
ties with Turkey, a key Muslim ally.
Since then, however, those ties have deteriorated.
The Turkish parliament stunned Washington just before the occupation of Iraq
in March 2003 when it denied US troops access to Turkish territory for a
planned invasion of Iraq from the north.
Relations between the two NATO allies were further strained by US reluctance
to take military action against Turkish Kurd rebels in northern Iraq and
Ankara's concern that Iraqi Kurds are getting too much power in post-war
Iraq.
March 30, 2005
ISTANBUL (AFP) - The United States will help ease tensions with Turkey if it
sticks to its stance of not recognizing the killings of Armenians under the
Ottoman Empire as genocide, Anatolia news agency quoted a senior Turkish
official as saying.
Turkey expects Washington "to maintain the sound position on the issue it
has displayed in the past as a first step... (towards) leaving current
disturbances behind so that Turkish-US ties can progress on a healthy
basis," the head of the National Security Council, Yigit Alpogan, said.
"We believe the American administration will not give the green light to
slanders which render all Turks as children of murderers," Alpogan told a
gathering of a Turkish-American business group.
Washington has so far refrained from terming the World War I massacres as
genocide despite pressure from pro-Armenian lobbies.
On April 24 Armenians will mark the 90th anniversary of the beginning of the
controversial massacres.
Ankara is concerned that the Armenians will this year step up their campaign
to have the events acknowledged as genocide by Washington at a time when
Turkish-US relations are markedly strained by differences over Iraq.
US President George W. Bush last year described the massacres as "one of the
most horrible tragedies of the 20th century."
Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their kinsmen perished in orchestrated
killings and deportations between 1915 and 1917.
Turkey categorically rejects allegations of genocide, saying that 300,000
Armenians and thousands of Turks were killed in what was a civil strife
during World War I when the Armenians rose up against their Ottoman rulers
and sided with invading Russian troops.
In October 2000, a draft congressional resolution acknowledging the killings
as genocide was pulled from the House floor following an intervention by
then president Bill Clinton, who argued that the United State not damage its
ties with Turkey, a key Muslim ally.
Since then, however, those ties have deteriorated.
The Turkish parliament stunned Washington just before the occupation of Iraq
in March 2003 when it denied US troops access to Turkish territory for a
planned invasion of Iraq from the north.
Relations between the two NATO allies were further strained by US reluctance
to take military action against Turkish Kurd rebels in northern Iraq and
Ankara's concern that Iraqi Kurds are getting too much power in post-war
Iraq.