Posted on 10/14/2007 8:52:33 AM PDT by saganite
ISTANBUL, Turkey - Turkey's top general warned that ties with the U.S., already strained by attacks from rebels hiding in Iraq, will be irreversibly damaged if Congress passes a resolution that labels the World War I-era killings of Armenians a genocide.
Turkey, which is a major cargo hub for U.S. and allied military forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, has recalled its ambassador to Washington for consultations and warned that there might be a cut in the logistical support to the U.S. over the issue.
Gen. Yasar Buyukanit told daily Milliyet newspaper that a congressional committee's approval of the measure had already harmed ties between the two countries.
"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," Buyukanit was quoted as saying by Milliyet.
"I'm the military chief, I deal with security issues. I'm not a politician," Buyukanit was quoted as saying by Milliyet. "In this regard, the U.S. shot its own foot."
President Bush has said the resolution is the wrong response to the Armenian deaths, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the measure's timing was important "because many of the survivors are very old."
"It is a statement made by 23 other countries. We would be the 24th country to make this statement. Genocide still exists, and we saw it in Rwanda; we see it now in Darfur," she told ABC's "This Week" in an interview broadcast Sunday.
But Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, said the measure was "irresponsible."
"Listen, there's no question that the suffering of the Armenian people some 90 years ago was extreme. But what happened 90 years ago ought to be a subject for historians to sort out, not politicians here in Washington," he told "Fox News Sunday."
About 70 percent of U.S. air cargo headed for Iraq goes through Turkey as does about one-third of the fuel used by the U.S. military there. U.S. bases also get water and other supplies carried in overland by Turkish truckers who cross into Iraq's northern Kurdish region.
In addition, C-17 cargo planes fly military supplies to U.S. soldiers in remote areas of Iraq from Incirlik, avoiding the use of Iraqi roads vulnerable to bomb attacks. U.S. officials say the arrangement helps reduce American casualties.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has "urged restraint" from Turkey and sent two high-ranking officials to Ankara in an apparent attempt to ease fury over the measure which could be voted on by the House by the end of the year.
Buyukanit's remarks were published a day after a visit by Dan Fried, assistant secretary of state for European affairs, and Eric Edelman, who is the undersecretary of defense for policy.
"Secretary of State Rice Condoleezza Rice asked us before we came here to express that the Bush administration is opposed to this resolution," Edelman said Saturday.
At issue in the resolution is the killing of up to 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman Turks. Many international historians contend the World War I-era deaths amounted to genocide, but Turkey says the mass killings and deportations were not systematic and that many Turkish Muslims died in the chaos of war.
The congressional resolution comes as the Turkish parliament debates authorizing a military campaign into northern Iraq to root out rebels who seek a unified, independent nation for Kurds in the region.
U.S. officials have urged Turkey not to send troops and appealed for a diplomatic solution with Iraq. The Kurdish self-rule region in northern Iraq is one of the country's few relatively stable areas and the Kurds here are also a longtime U.S. ally.
A Kurdish rebel commander on Saturday said Turkey would face a long and bloody conflict if it launched a large-scale offensive in northern Iraq.
Speaking to The Associated Press deep in the Qandil mountains straddling the Iraq-Turkish border, some 94 miles from the northern Iraqi Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah, Murat Karayilan, head of the armed wing of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, warned that an eventual Turkish incursion would "make Turkey experience a Vietnam war."
The PKK has been fighting for autonomy in southeast Turkey since 1984. The conflict has claimed tens of thousands of lives. Turkey says the rebels use Iraqi Kurdish territory as a safe haven. Iraqi and Kurdish authorities reject the claim.
___
No, the Democrat House is amazingly astute at politics. Early on in this war, Democrats whined and wailed about being called traitors to put Pubbies on defensive and make them look like bullies. Now with the battlefield cleared, so to speak, Democrats can act like traitors and not be called on it.
Yeah this BS resolution on paper will show those dead turks who committed the crime we mean business and correct any and all related atrocities in question........ < /sarcasm>
Sorry I see this Pelosi pandering polidiot paper for what it is.......cow crap.
Yes what the turks did back then was horrible.......but since those responsible have since passed from life and power this congressional effort is not meant to recognize or punish that government it is meant to use those murdered in a manner to undermine the current military efforts in the area vs any form of respectable dignified respect an accounting which the victims deserve.
To advocate, support or agree with such a dishonorable act under the cover of propriety and false concern for the victims is a slap in the face of the survivors of said victims.
Timing and true intent is an insult to Armenians IMO...........
Our ties to Turkey are already strained. We Imported how many million Armenians int this nation? They are still struggling with recognition of their holocaust? Can’t make friends with everybody.
Everybody has their pet atrocity they love to keep talking about. Remembering innocent victims is right. Using this one as a wedge to wreck our efforts in Iraq is wrong.
No doubt German personnel, from Kaiser Wilhelm II on down, participated in the genocide both actively and passively.
And you IGNORED it in Rwanda while 800,000 men women and children were hacked, shot and burned to death. They plead for help = and Clinton instructed HalfRight to stand at the UN podium and DENY there was any evidence of genocide.
And what are you doing for the tens of thousands being slaughtered, as you speak through your lying, plastic face, in Darfur. Oh, I forgot. Your clown, Carter, went to Darfur. He says nothing to see there.
This murderous (if they bring about what they hope by getting our supply routes to our troops shut down, many of our troops will die) traitorous scum of the earth (apologies to other scum of the earth) need to be shut down.
I hope any of you that did your part in assuring that Pelosi, Reid et al, got control in the last election, to "teach the republicans a lesson" are happy with what you have helped wrought. You are equally guilty with anything that happens as a result of this monstrous, deliberate act perpetrated for persoal and political gain.
(for the rest of us, I ask you join me in praying for my grandson (Airborne TF in Afghanistan) and all our other troops that they are not the victims of this heinous act.)
The state department is responsible for leaving this mack truck opening.
It is not just the life diplomats, it is Rice and before her, Powel who set up this diplomatic issue. If it was not this non-binding resolution, the Turkish government would have found some OTHER issue to grab the US by the short hairs.
Sadly cowboy diplomacy would probably be useful at this point. Desk jockey diplomacy has done nothing well.
Imagine if someone said the same thing about “the holocost” and time to forget!
we need to do more than hope and chat-chat to one another.
We need to FREEP Washington and the media NOW and BIG!
WE need to support our troops and see that they continue to get the supplies and equipment they need to stay alive. That includes food and water (my grandson in the Korengal Valley ("The Valley of Fire" so named because of the daily fighting) is 45 minutes from the nearest running water - only MRE's to eat, etc...and the anti-IED's equipment that helps keep them from being blown up - comes through Turkey...
We can't just sit here and tsk tsk about it.
"He has the right to criticize who has the heart to help" >/b>Lincoln
If we don't make a big stink about this - they well may succeed in shutting down our supply route and causing many more troop deaths and rip the success they have so valiantly won out from under them - and us.
They write up a resolution to condemn Rush over a blatantly phony charge of anti-troops - what the bloody he*l do you call this?
Don't forget what they are doing for us now...and don't forget the freepers who 'taught the republicans a lesson; and aided the rise to power of pelosi and reid...
smoke that
A little off topic, but I notice Reid isn’t getting involved with this mess, it’s only Pelosi. I think Rush Limbaugh kicked his ass and embarassed him so much that he’s decided to give up in his surrender games. After all, now he has to prove he’s supposedly a bigger supporter of the military than Rush with the bids on eBay. Whenever Dingy tries to start something (i.e. the all-night debate and the letter slamming Rush) it always backfires. I hope he gets voted out in 2010.
ok everybody remember everything everywhere.
There you go again, MSM. Shame.. but it's what you do: mislead the public. The PKK is not part of the Kurdish Regional government of Iraq. The PKK also known as KADEK is a Marxist terrorist organization.
"State's Fried Discusses PKK-Sponsored Terrorism in Turkey. Says U.S. cooperation with Turkey to counter PKK "will intensify"
I can just imagine Harry and Nancy’s response.
“Who is this douchebag foreigner to threaten us? When you’re right, you’re right. Why should we worry about what the world thinks of us? Onward unilateralism!”
“And, oh, yeah. We don’t believe in double standards.”
How many of us are getting "out in front" on this?
How many of us have/are freeping the MSM and Washington on this?
Our country is based on the freedoms of "We the People - " but not just "FOR" the people, also "OF" the people.
We;ve become a lazy 'People" sitting back waiting for everyone else to do the heavy lifting.
Unless we make a loud noise over this, the traitors may well prevail.
Send your emails/snail mails/phone calls yet? This even deserves the old fashioned but LOUD Western Union...
No time like the present
I for two...
Even though I know that it was an exercise in futility, I phoned my Congressmen (Specter, Casey and Tim Holden) and voiced my disgust with the Dems and Congress in general.
But your point is valid. If we don’t get loud and obnoxious to our Representatives, they will just go along as always, oblivious to how we feel.
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