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TURKEY-U.S. TIES AT RISK OVER GENOCIDE BILL, HURRIYET SAYS
By Benjamin Harvey
Bloomberg
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-21/turkey-u-s-ties-at-risk-over-genocide-bill-hurriyet-says.html
Dec 21 2010
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned the U.S. of
icy relations if Congress passes a resolution condemning the early
20th century killings of Armenians in Turkey as genocide, Hurriyet
newspaper reported.
The resolution, which has the support of U.S. Speaker of the House
Nancy Pelosi, is set to be debated by Congress as early as this week,
the Istanbul-based paper said.
In a letter to President Barack Obama, Erdogan said passing the
genocide bill would harm Turkey-U.S. relations in a way that would be
difficult to repair, and called for the issue to be left to historians
rather than politicians, Hurriyet said. Turkey would likely recall
its ambassador, leaving the two countries with no ambassador-level
diplomatic ties because the U.S. ambassador to Ankara, James Jeffrey,
was moved to Baghdad in July and not replaced, Hurriyet said.
Armenian lobbying groups have pushed the U.S. for decades
to recognize as genocide the deaths of as many as 1.5 million
Armenians under Ottoman Turkish rule around 1915. Turkey denies the
genocide classification, saying some Armenians revolted under Russian
encouragement and were participants in a war, and others were victims
of chaos as the empire was invaded and then collapsed.
From: A. Papazian
By Benjamin Harvey
Bloomberg
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-21/turkey-u-s-ties-at-risk-over-genocide-bill-hurriyet-says.html
Dec 21 2010
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned the U.S. of
icy relations if Congress passes a resolution condemning the early
20th century killings of Armenians in Turkey as genocide, Hurriyet
newspaper reported.
The resolution, which has the support of U.S. Speaker of the House
Nancy Pelosi, is set to be debated by Congress as early as this week,
the Istanbul-based paper said.
In a letter to President Barack Obama, Erdogan said passing the
genocide bill would harm Turkey-U.S. relations in a way that would be
difficult to repair, and called for the issue to be left to historians
rather than politicians, Hurriyet said. Turkey would likely recall
its ambassador, leaving the two countries with no ambassador-level
diplomatic ties because the U.S. ambassador to Ankara, James Jeffrey,
was moved to Baghdad in July and not replaced, Hurriyet said.
Armenian lobbying groups have pushed the U.S. for decades
to recognize as genocide the deaths of as many as 1.5 million
Armenians under Ottoman Turkish rule around 1915. Turkey denies the
genocide classification, saying some Armenians revolted under Russian
encouragement and were participants in a war, and others were victims
of chaos as the empire was invaded and then collapsed.
From: A. Papazian