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TURKEY: TENSION OVER US CHAMBER VOTE ON ARMENIAN MASSACRE
ANSAmed
December 21, 2010 Tuesday 3:01 PM CET
Italy
(ANSAmed) There is renewed tension between Ankara and Washington over
a vote scheduled for today in the American House of Representatives
on a resolution to recognise as 'genocide' the massacre of Armenians
by Ottoman Empire troops between 1915 and 1917. Turkey has always
denied that one and a half million Armenians killed were victims of
genocide and has always claimed that they died as part of a civil war.
The US Congress Commission of Foreign Affairs gave its verdict in
March with 23 votes in favour and 22 against resolution number 252.
The Presidency and the make-up of the House of Representatives will
change in the new year, with Presidency shifting to the Republican
party. This means that the motion voted by the Foreign Affaris
Commission automatically lapses. A number of Turkish commentators
say that it is this lapse that has lead the Speaker of the Chamber,
Nancy Pelosi, to accelerate the vote in favour of the motion, in
order to make it law.
All Turkish papers are reporting on the issue today, quoting the
letter sent yesterday by the Prime Minister, Tayyip Erdogan, to
the US President, Barack Obama, in which the Turkish head of state
underlines that the approval of the resolution "could damage the
relations between the two countries".
From: A. Papazian
ANSAmed
December 21, 2010 Tuesday 3:01 PM CET
Italy
(ANSAmed) There is renewed tension between Ankara and Washington over
a vote scheduled for today in the American House of Representatives
on a resolution to recognise as 'genocide' the massacre of Armenians
by Ottoman Empire troops between 1915 and 1917. Turkey has always
denied that one and a half million Armenians killed were victims of
genocide and has always claimed that they died as part of a civil war.
The US Congress Commission of Foreign Affairs gave its verdict in
March with 23 votes in favour and 22 against resolution number 252.
The Presidency and the make-up of the House of Representatives will
change in the new year, with Presidency shifting to the Republican
party. This means that the motion voted by the Foreign Affaris
Commission automatically lapses. A number of Turkish commentators
say that it is this lapse that has lead the Speaker of the Chamber,
Nancy Pelosi, to accelerate the vote in favour of the motion, in
order to make it law.
All Turkish papers are reporting on the issue today, quoting the
letter sent yesterday by the Prime Minister, Tayyip Erdogan, to
the US President, Barack Obama, in which the Turkish head of state
underlines that the approval of the resolution "could damage the
relations between the two countries".
From: A. Papazian