YEREVAN SLAMS US OPPONENTS OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE RECOGNITION

Report by Emil Danielyan

Armenia condemned on Friday eight former U.S. secretaries of state for jointly speaking out against the passage of a congressional resolution that refers to the 1915-1918 mass killings of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey as a genocide.

In a joint letter on Tuesday, the former officials urged the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, to keep the resolution from reaching the House floor, saying its adoption would jeopardize America's national security and further strain Turkish - Armenian relations. While recognizing the "horrible tragedy" suffered by Ottoman Armenians, the signatories -- among them Colin Powell, Madeleine Albright and Henry Kissinger -- emphasized Turkey's "geo-strategic importance" for the United >States.

"Passage of the resolution would harm our foreign policy objectives to promote reconciliation between Turkey and Armenia," they said. "It would also strain our relations with Turkey, and would endanger our national security interests in the region, including the safety of our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan."

"It is quite unfortunate that eight experienced diplomats would buy into Turkish manipulation," Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian responded in an extraordinary statement.

Oskanian specifically denied the former state secretaries' claim that there are now "some hopeful signs" of a Turkish - Armenian >rapprochement. "I regret to say that there is no process in place to promote normalization of relations between Armenia and Turkey. Expressing concern about damaging a process that doesn't exist is disingenuous," he said, adding that Ankara is sticking to its preconditions for establishing diplomatic relations with Yerevan.

One of those preconditions has been an end to the decades-long Armenian campaign for international recognition of the genocide. Ankara also makes the normalization of Turkish - Armenian relations conditional on a resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict that would satisfy Azerbaijan. Successive Turkish governments have refused to drop these preconditions despite pressure from the current and previous U.S. administrations.

Oskanian said he has written to Pelosi to "express our deep concerns and to dismiss as unfounded any implication that a resolution that addresses matters of human rights and genocide could damage anyone's bilateral relations."

The ex-secretaries' letter was also condemned by Armenian - American lobby groups that were behind the genocide resolution's introduction in the U.S. Congress early this year. "We are, as Americans, especially troubled that, in warning Congress not to make a simple anti-genocide statement for fear of upsetting Turkey, these officials would outsource our nation's moral conscience to a foreign government," Aram Hamparian, executive director of the Armenian National Committee of America, said in a statement.

The draft resolution calls on President George W. Bush to "ensure that the foreign policy of the United States reflects appropriate understanding" of the Armenian genocide and to "accurately characterize the systematic and deliberate annihilation of 1,500,000 Armenians as genocide." It has already been co-sponsored by most members of the House of >Representatives. Pelosi, who has backed similar bills in the past, is expected to put it to the vote this fall.

The Bush administration strongly opposes the bill's passage with arguments similar to the ones made by the eight former secretaries of state.

In his annual messages to the Armenian - American community, Bush has described the 1915 slaughter of more than one million Armenians as one of the greatest tragedies of the 20th century but stopped short of calling it a genocide. He has at the same time cited a 2002 international study which concluded that the massacres meet the internationally accepted definition of genocide.

TEXT OF FORMER SECRETARIES OF STATE LETTER TO SPEAKER PELOSI:

September 25, 2007

The Honorable Nancy Pelosi
Speaker of the House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515-0508

Dear Madam Speaker:

We are writing to express concern that H. Res. 106 could soon be put to a vote. Passage of the resolution would harm our foreign policy objectives to promote reconciliation between Turkey and Armenia. It would also strain our relations with Turkey, and would endanger our national security interests in the region, including the safety of our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

We do not minimize or deny the enormous significance of the horrible tragedy suffered by ethnic Armenian from 1915 to 1923. During our tenures as Secretaries of the State, we each supported Presidential statements recognizing the mass killings and forced exile of Armenians. It has been longstanding U.S. policy to encourage reconciliation between Turkey and Armenia and to urge the government of Turkey to acknowledge the tragedy. We understand the Administration continues to urge the Turkish government to reexamine its history and to encourage both Turkey and Armenia to work towards reconciliation, including normalizing relations and opening the border. There are some hopeful signs already that both parties are engaging each other. We believe that a public statement by the U.S. Congress at this juncture is likely to undermine what has been painstakingly achieved to date.

We must also recognize the important contributions Turkey is making to U.S. national security, including security and stability in the Middle East and Europe. The United States continues to rely on Turkey for its geo-strategic importance. Turkey is an indispensable partner to our efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan, helping U.S military with access to Turkish airspace, military bases, and the border crossing with Iraq, Turkey is a linchpin in the transshipment of vital cargo and fuel resources to U.S. troops, coalition partners and Iraqi civilians. Turkish troops serve shoulder-to-shoulder with distinction with U.S. and other NATO allies in the Balkans. Turkey is also a transit hub for non-OPEC oil and gas and remains key to our effort s to help the Euro-Atlantic community bolster its energy security by providing alternative supply sources and routes around Russia and Iran.

It is our view that passage of this resolution could quickly extend beyond symbolic significance. The popularly elected Turkish Grand National Assembly might react strongly to a House resolution, as it did to a French National Assembly resolution a year ago. The result could endanger our national security interests in the region, including our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, and damage efforts to promote reconciliation between Armenia and Turkey. We strongly urge you to prevent the resolution from reaching the house floor.

Sincerely,

Madeleine K. Albright
James A. Baker III
Warren Christopher
Lawrence S. Eagleburger
Alexander M. Haig, Jr
Henry A. Kissinger
Colin L. Powell
George P. Shultz