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.
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Do Nothing Nancy is Moron of the Highest Order. This is just her latest bumbling to damage the military. This is easily the worst congress in histoir. She should resign.
Pray for W and Our Troops
WWI all over again.
Democrats are ADDICTED to power, and to the money the unrestrained power has given them. Like other kinds of addict, they can be irrational and DANGEROUS. They are already selling out the country’s welfare and legal integrity, just to get a fix.
“Well General, you have to understand that in the United States the Congress doesn’t represent the American people.”
Or something along that line.
How about when all the people that committed the atrocities are all dead?
And there's a difference between forgetting something and constantly re-opening old wounds, like a bickering couple might do.
The Dems seem to have an on-going plan to antagonize our military allies in SE Asia, including Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan. This can only benefit the radical Islamic regimes in the area and undermine the WOT.
I'm sure Bush is working to fix this quietly on the diplomatic end, but he also needs to step up and take the lead on this in public.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1u9702U02k&mode=related&search=
Turk denial of movement of the 4th Infantry Division
yeh......but they took the money first!
Since Turkey seems so up in arms about this resolution, I’ve got to wonder if Israel has ever made a statement on the Ottoman/Armenian matter......my guess might be no, because of the relationship that exists between Israel and Turkey.....
How about when all the people that committed the atrocities are all dead?
Or when the government and constitution of the country responsible are long gone.
I'm certainly not going to condemn the current constitutional government of Germany or its people for the atrocities of Hitler.
Let's take it all the way back to Troy. Or, that conflict Arjuna was involved in, which might be even older. Let's have a Bill of Condemnation for the Peloponnesian War and the invasion of England by the Normans while we're at it.
How about one year.
I have already forgotten about Saddam’s attrocities.
And about what the terrorists did to America.
We should leave them all alone and wipe it out
of the books.
Is this a better attitude?
Democrat leadership = TRAITORS
I can live with the gaudy and tasteless houses, the criminal overuse of cologne, the spoiled, insolent children and their 90k cars, the cultural insularity, the ridiculous levels of political corruption, the chain smoking, the violation of our immigration laws, too much plastic surgery, and so much tacky gold jewelry that it would have emptied out the Homestake Claim, but I have to draw the line when a noisy group of Armenians threatens to wreck relations with one of our strongest allies in the region in a time of war. Be content with Glendale.
Other considerations rule those who wish to be useful.
I find it harder to live around obese americans with egos bigger than their brains
and cookie cutter suburban lives next to malls and tasteless foods, than to live next to Armenians and their shortcomings.
I don’t think it’s possible to judge the recognition of an event over time.
We remember and acknowledge only what serves us and our purposes.
The millions of Christian victims were killed with daggers, swords, hammers and axes to save ammunition...and gang raped by Muslim Turks.
The descendants of the holocaust victims deserve the minimal respect that this American proclamation shows.
I am proud of the Republicans and all others who have stood up to the dhimmis on both sides of the aisle who believe they can buy the “love” of Muslim Turks...how obscene.
Jimma Carter said today on Woofie: I wouldn’t vote for Pelosi’s War Resolution Against Turkey.
Well then, perhaps it isn’t so bad. You can’t go wrong disagreeing with Jimmy Carter.
“Egos bigger than brains,” is about exactly how I would describe the Glendale mafia, except maybe, “egos bigger than their cars.”
They weren’t cookie cutter homes, they were called Craftsman Bungalows, that is before they were torn down to make way for Mussolini’s looming, 5-story, iron-gated, tasteless, white monstrosity.
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