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  • Turkey warns U.S. against genocide vote

    CBC Canada
    March 5 2010

    Turkey warns U.S. against genocide vote

    Last Updated: Friday, March 5, 2010 | 7:40 AM ET
    CBC News


    Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said a U.S. congressional
    committee's declaration that the First World War-era killing of
    Armenians was genocide could hurt ties between Turkey and the U.S.
    (Burhan Ozbilici/Associated Press)
    Turkey's foreign minister warned the Obama administration on Friday of
    negative diplomatic consequences if it does not do more to block a
    U.S. resolution branding the World War I-era killing of Armenians as
    genocide.

    Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Turkey would assess what
    measures it would take should a resolution approved Thursday pass in
    the U.S. House of Representatives.

    "We expect the U.S. administration to, as of now, display more
    effective efforts. Otherwise the picture ahead will not be a positive
    one," Davutoglu told reporters.

    The U.S. foreign affairs committee panel approved the resolution
    declaring the Ottoman-era killing of Armenians genocide with a 23-22
    vote. The resolution is now set to go before the full House.

    Obama has urged the congressional panel not to approve the resolution,
    saying he did not want to upset promising talks between Turkey and
    Armenia on improving relations and opening their border.

    Turkey also remains a key Muslim ally for the United States in the
    Middle East, and Washington was expected to press Turkey to support
    sanctions against Iran to be approved by the UN Security Council,
    where Turkey holds a seat.

    Canada recognized genocide in 2004
    Historians estimate that up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed by
    Ottoman Turks in 1915 at the end of the First World War.

    The deaths are widely viewed by genocide scholars as the first
    genocide of the 20th century. But Turkey denies that the deaths
    constituted genocide and contends the toll has been inflated and the
    casualties were victims of civil war and unrest.

    Canada recognized the deaths as genocide in 2004, after Parliament
    voted 153-68 to adopt a Bloc Québécois motion that condemned the act
    as "a crime against humanity."

    Twice since then, Turkey has recalled its ambassador to Canada in
    response to what it viewed as overt shows of support for the branding
    of the event as a genocide, most recently in April last year after
    Canadian officials reportedly attended an event in Ottawa organized to
    mark the fifth anniversary of parliament recognizing the 1915 killings
    as genocide.

    Canadian officials have repeatedly stated, however, that the country's
    position on the mass deaths of Armenians more than 90 years ago was
    not an indictment of modern Turkey.

    The U.S. foreign affairs committee approved a similar genocide measure
    in 2007, but the House chose not to vote on it after facing pressure
    by top officials in the administration of then President George W.
    Bush.


    http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/03/0 5/turkey-armenia-us.html
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