Turkey, GOP warn against vote on genocide

House Democratic leaders say they will insist on a floor vote on a resolution calling the 1915 massacre of Armenians by Ottoman Turks “genocide,” despite Turkish leaders saying it will seriously hurt relations and Republican warnings that the measure is “the most irresponsible” action Congress can take.

“This resolution is one that is consistent with what our government has always said about what … happened at that time,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said yesterday on ABC’s “This Week.”

“I said if it passed the [House Foreign Affairs Committee] that we would bring it to the floor,” she said.

But yesterday, Turkey’s military chief said the committee’s action last week had already harmed U.S. ties with Turkey, which grants the U.S. use of its airspace and bases in its country to help fight the war in Iraq.

“If this resolution passed in the committee passes the House as well, our military ties with the U.S. will never be the same again,” Gen. Yasar Buyukanit told the daily Milliyet newspaper. “I’m the military chief; I deal with security issues. I’m not a politician. [But] in this regard, the U.S. shot its own foot.”

The issue is highly sensitive in Turkey, where it is a crime to describe the Armenian killings as genocide. Turkey recalled its ambassador to the U.S. after the committee vote and has threatened further retaliation.

The top House Republican said the resolution “may be the most irresponsible thing I’ve seen this new Congress do this year.”

“Turkey is a very important ally in our war against the terrorists — in a very strategic location in the world,” House Minority Leader John A. Boehner of Ohio said yesterday on the “Fox News Sunday” program. “They are very upset about this resolution.”

Mr. Boehner added that Congress is no place for the issue to be debated.

“Listen, there’s no question that the suffering of the Armenian people some 90 years ago was extreme,” Mr. Boehner said. “But what happened 90 years ago ought to be a subject for historians to sort out, not politicians here in Washington.”

The Bush administration says the resolution could undermine the U.S. position in Iraq as it urges Turkey to refrain from any major military operations in northern Iraq. The Turkish government is planning to seek parliamentary approval for military operations against a militant group, the Kurdistan Workers Party, based in the mountains of northern Iraq.

“I don’t think the Congress passing this resolution is a good idea at any point, but particularly not a good idea when Turkey is cooperating with us in many ways, which ensures greater safety for our soldiers,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican, said yesterday on “This Week.”

But Mrs. Pelosi denies the measure will permanently weaken diplomatic relations with Turkey or put U.S. troops at risk.

“I think our troops are well-served when we declare who we are as a country and increase the respect that people have for us as a nation,” she said, dismissing the possibility of Turkish retaliation as “hypothetical.”

The California Democrat said the resolution will be brought to the House floor for a vote by mid-November.

Story Continues →