Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates walked out of the White House at about 10:15 a.m. and said that a resolution being considered in the House this morning would imperil U.S. resupply routes into Iraq and Afghanistan.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee is set to vote on a resolution to label as genocide the deaths of Armenians at the hands of Turkey soldiers in 1915, which prompted a meeting between President Bush, Miss Rice and Mr. Gates.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat, is helping to drive the measure, but Miss Rice and Mr. Gates said such a resolution would so anger the Turkish government that they could cut off access to Turkish airfields.
"About 70 percent of all air cargo going into Iraq goes through Turkey. About a third of the fuel that [U.S. troops] consume comes from Turkey," Mr. Gates said.
Mr. Gates said that U.S. military commanders raised concerns about the resolution because "they believe clearly that access to air fields and to roads and so on in Turkey would be very much put at risk if this resolution passes and the Turks react as strongly as we believe they will."
Miss Rice said that the military commanders "asked us to do everything we could to make sure this does not pass."
"This is not because the United States fails to recognize the terrible tragedy of 1915, the mass killings that took place there," Miss Rice said. "The passage of this resolution at this time would indeed be problematic for everything that we are trying to do in the Middle East, because we are very dependent on a good Turkish strategic ally to help with our efforts."
-- Jon Ward, White House correspondent, The Washington Times
Comments (2)
i really deem that most races/nations are civilised and intelligent enough, if not moral, to call their OWN acts/crimes genocide.
i do not understand why America needs to discuss a genocide that happened in 1915 in Turkey, at all. And that too, now, out of the blue.
Also, I do not think that America, waging its own wars lately, has any moral right too. What America is doing in Iraq/In Guantanamo.. may also be seen as genocide, if one wants to.
The one thing I know is that I, as a Christian, object to the anti-Christian feelings Mr Bush and the White House is stirring up all over the Muslim world. Christians were safe in Iraq....
Genocide takes many forms. And it is always a show of supremacy. Of distaste. Of contempt.
The same kind of arrogance, bigotry, low iq and literacy, Bush and Milo display/displayed.
Posted by MONICA | October 11, 2007 5:05 AM
This resolution is not out of the blue. Every year, this same resolution is introduced, and every year, it is shot down by Turkish threats. 22 countries have recognized the genocide, as have 40 US states.
Historians and scholars have unequivocally proven that the events of 1915 were genocide, any further discussion on that is absurd and has no place among educated people. It is as absurd as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad saying that the Holocaust is a myth. The International Association of Genocide Scholars has a declaration saying the Armenian genocide is an absolute historical fact.
Congress has passed a similar resolution for all the other major genocides in the 20th century. Why not this one? The US has amoral responsibility to stand up for human rights issues. It's absurd that we are actually allowing Turkish generals to decide what OUR representatives can and can't vote on. If we don't recognize past genocides because of a political alliance, we are sending a message to governments today, that "if we can use your bases, we'll help you cover up any massacres or genocides you want to commit." Congress has a chance to take the moral highground, but they are choosing to cave to baseless threats instead. The Turkish government spends millions of dollars each year to make sure the genocide is kept under wraps. We have a moral responsibility to NOT be a part of this denial.
Posted by Maria A | October 19, 2007 7:16 AM