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AZERBAIJAN'S RULING PARTY CONDEMNS U.S. ARMENIAN GENOCIDE VOTE
RIA Novosti
March 5, 2010
Baku
Azerbaijani MPs condemned on Friday the decision by the U.S. House
Foreign Affairs Committee to approve a bill on the killing of Armenians
by the Ottoman Empire during World War I.
Yerevan describes the massacre of ethnic Armenians as "genocide"
and says nearly 1.5 million people were killed. Turkey rejects the
accusations.
Ali Ahmadov, deputy head of the ruling New Azerbaijan Party, told
News.az the resolution was the "falsification of history," and added
that the decision targeted not only Turkey, but also Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijan, populated mainly with Turks' ethnic kin, enjoys crucial
support from Ankara in its stand-off with Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh
- a predominantly Armenian-populated region in Azerbaijan which broke
away from Baku in the dying years of the Soviet Union.
Turkey, a key NATO ally and a crucial U.S. partner in operations in
Iraq, is currently considering the suspension of military cooperation
with Washington over the genocide ruling.
"The issue of the so-called 'Armenian genocide' is a lever of pressure
on Turkey. This is a 'golden bullet' in the arsenal of the United
States against Turkey," the New Azerbaijan party MP Mubariz Gurbanli
told the Azerbaijani Trend news agency.
On March 4, the Foreign Affairs Committee of the U.S. House of
Representatives voted 23-22 in support of the resolution following
almost six hours of heated debates.
Azerbaijan, which has own rich oil reserves, is viewed in the West
as a crucial link in an energy corridor which could deliver gas from
Central Asia to Europe bypassing Russia.
The resolution has already become a diplomatic flashpoint between
Washington and Ankara. Turkey earlier warned Washington that the move
could jeopardize U.S-Turkish cooperation and set back talks aimed at
opening the border between Turkey and Armenia closed since 1993 on
Ankara's initiative.
Turkey and Armenia signed protocols on establishing diplomatic
relations and on developing bilateral relations last October. They
are yet to be approved by their parliaments.
A similar vote in the committee was approved by a wider margin in
2007, but the U.S. Bush administration, anxious to retain Turkish
cooperation in Iraq, scuttled a full House vote.
A number of states have recognized the killings in Armenia as the
first genocide of the 20th century, including Russia, France, Italy,
Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and Greece, as well as 42 of the
50 U.S. states. The Vatican, the European Parliament and the World
Council of Churches have also denounced the killings as genocide.
Uruguay was the first to do so in 1965.
However, on the eve of the vote, the Obama administration urged the
committee not to approve the resolution, fearing it could alienate
Washington's NATO ally, whose help the White House considers invaluable
in solving confrontations in the Middle East and Afghanistan.
RIA Novosti
March 5, 2010
Baku
Azerbaijani MPs condemned on Friday the decision by the U.S. House
Foreign Affairs Committee to approve a bill on the killing of Armenians
by the Ottoman Empire during World War I.
Yerevan describes the massacre of ethnic Armenians as "genocide"
and says nearly 1.5 million people were killed. Turkey rejects the
accusations.
Ali Ahmadov, deputy head of the ruling New Azerbaijan Party, told
News.az the resolution was the "falsification of history," and added
that the decision targeted not only Turkey, but also Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijan, populated mainly with Turks' ethnic kin, enjoys crucial
support from Ankara in its stand-off with Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh
- a predominantly Armenian-populated region in Azerbaijan which broke
away from Baku in the dying years of the Soviet Union.
Turkey, a key NATO ally and a crucial U.S. partner in operations in
Iraq, is currently considering the suspension of military cooperation
with Washington over the genocide ruling.
"The issue of the so-called 'Armenian genocide' is a lever of pressure
on Turkey. This is a 'golden bullet' in the arsenal of the United
States against Turkey," the New Azerbaijan party MP Mubariz Gurbanli
told the Azerbaijani Trend news agency.
On March 4, the Foreign Affairs Committee of the U.S. House of
Representatives voted 23-22 in support of the resolution following
almost six hours of heated debates.
Azerbaijan, which has own rich oil reserves, is viewed in the West
as a crucial link in an energy corridor which could deliver gas from
Central Asia to Europe bypassing Russia.
The resolution has already become a diplomatic flashpoint between
Washington and Ankara. Turkey earlier warned Washington that the move
could jeopardize U.S-Turkish cooperation and set back talks aimed at
opening the border between Turkey and Armenia closed since 1993 on
Ankara's initiative.
Turkey and Armenia signed protocols on establishing diplomatic
relations and on developing bilateral relations last October. They
are yet to be approved by their parliaments.
A similar vote in the committee was approved by a wider margin in
2007, but the U.S. Bush administration, anxious to retain Turkish
cooperation in Iraq, scuttled a full House vote.
A number of states have recognized the killings in Armenia as the
first genocide of the 20th century, including Russia, France, Italy,
Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and Greece, as well as 42 of the
50 U.S. states. The Vatican, the European Parliament and the World
Council of Churches have also denounced the killings as genocide.
Uruguay was the first to do so in 1965.
However, on the eve of the vote, the Obama administration urged the
committee not to approve the resolution, fearing it could alienate
Washington's NATO ally, whose help the White House considers invaluable
in solving confrontations in the Middle East and Afghanistan.