Recent US Vote in the British Press‏

The Independent

March 6, 2010
Robert Fisk: Someone remembers this atrocity at last - to Obama's dismay
World Focus: Armenia

Once more we have to forget the Armenian Holocaust - the first of the 20th century - in order to appease the Turks. Bill Clinton did it.
George W Bush spinelessly caved in to the Turkish generals. And now our favourite Nobel prize winner - another brave president who promised to acknowledge the Armenian genocide if he was elected and then declined to do so - went whinging and whining to the House Foreign Affairs Committee in Washington and pleaded with them not to tell the truth about the savage rape and murder of 1.5 million Armenian civilians by the Turks in 1915. Good for the committee that it did not give in. But it will do no good.

Sure, the Turkish ambassador has been recalled from Washington in a huff. But equally certain is that there will be no vote on the genocide by the full House of Representatives. And if there is, there'll never be a vote in the Senate. Obama will help see to that. The man who wanted change doesn't want change on the little matter of a genocide that led directly to the Nazi murder of 6 million Jews.

The events in Washington prove a few things. The Armenian American community have a more powerful and wealthier lobby than ever before. More seriously - for the Turks - is that this year Turkey did not have the Israeli lobby behind it. In the past, Israel, which disgracefully claims that the Armenian Holocaust was not a genocide, has supported its close ally Turkey. But this year, Israel and Turkey have fallen out and the Israelis are still miffed at Turkey's condemnation of the bloodbath in Gaza.

The Turks sent their generals to bully Bush last time round. This time, the Turkish Foreign Minister warned that "Turkish-US ties are going through a very important phase in which they need strategic co-operation at the highest level in their history." The message is simple. Acknowledge the genocide, and the US will lose its airbases in Turkey and the Turkish roads its military convoys use into Iraq.

The fact, unfortunately, is that these roads are the very highways down which the Armenians were sent on their death marches in 1915. That's not mentioned, of course. Our faithful Turkish ally might even pack up its support for the US in Afghanistan, where they are helping fight "Obama's war". But Robert Gates is still in Washington to remind congressmen what he said last year; that America needed "those roads and so on". Well, let's just hope the American troops don't halt their convoys and dig in the fields around those roads in the coming years. The skeletons are still there in their tens of thousands.
One wonders what would happen if Germany suddenly decided that the Nazi Holocaust was not a genocide. Would Chancellor Merkel get away with it? Would Obama lobby that Germany should be allowed to get away with such an obscenity? Perhaps it's worth remembering that in 1939, Hitler asked his generals - before setting off into Poland to murder the millions of Jews in eastern Europe - a simple question: "Who now remembers the Armenians?" Well, Hitler got the answer he would have wanted from Obama this week.

The Times
March 5, 2010
Turkey recalls Ambassador after US vote on Armenia 'genocide'

One of the worst massacres of the 20th-century came back to haunt international politics yesterday when a powerful Washington panel voted to call the murder of about 1.5 million Armenians in Turkey “genocide”.

After more than three hours of debate, the House Committee on Foreign Affairs narrowly approved a resolution calling on President Obama to “characterise the systematic and deliberate annihilation of 1.5 million Armenians as genocide”.

The vote went ahead despite last-minute pleas from the White House and State Department and triggered a furious reaction from Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish Prime Minister.
“We condemn this resolution, which accuses the Turkish nation of a crime it did not committ,” he said. As Armenian observers applauded the vote on Capitol Hill, the Turkish Ambassador to Washington was recalled.

The Obama Administration may still be able to prevent a full vote in the House of Representatives but yesterday’s resolution threatened to poison America’s relations with its closest Muslim ally. Washington depends on Turkey for access to northern Iraq and in its regional efforts to isolate Iran.
The vote, with 23 congressmen in favour and 22 against, will also jeopardise historic efforts begun last year to create normal diplomatic relations between Turkey and Armenia.
“We are seriously concerned that this resolution approved by the committee despite all our warnings will harm Turkey-US ties and efforts to nomalise Turkey-Armenia relations,” Mr Erdogan added.
Mr Obama promised as a candidate to break with longstanding US practice and start calling the First World War era killings genocide if elected to the White House. He broke the promise last year, refusing to use the word on a visit to Ankara, where he praised Turkey as a model Muslim democracy.

He telephoned his Turkish counterpart this week to thank him for working towards a rapprochement with Armenia, while Hillary Clinton, the Secretary of State, had implored the Foreign Affairs Committee not to go ahead with the vote.

The committee chairman, Howard Berman, refused to be swayed. At the start of yesterday’s hearing he called Turkey a vital and usually loyal ally but insisted that nothing justified “turning a blind eye to the reality of the Armenian genocide”.

Mr Berman, a California Democrat who counts powerful Armenian émigrés among his Los Angeles constituents, said that Turkey’s duty to face up to its past compared to that of Germany to face up to the Holocaust and South Africa to acknowledge the full horror of apartheid.

Ankara accepts that many thousands of Christian Armenians living in what was then eastern Anatolia died in blood-letting by Muslim Ottoman troops in 1915. It rejects the term “genocide” and says that the 1.5 million figure for the final death toll is exaggerated. Experts, including some of Turkey’s own most respected historians, disagree.

Taner Akcam, a professor at Clark University in Massachusetts, became the first Turkish specialist to call the killings genocide in his comprehensive study A Shameful Act, published in English three years ago.

Since then Turkish and Armenian leaders have begun a normalisation process that has included a football match in Turkey between the two countries’ national teams last year, attended by the Armenian President.

The last time a resolution on the events of 1915 was debated in Congress it was approved by the House committee but never voted on by the full House of Representatives after Bush Administration officials urged congressional leaders not to table a vote for the sake of US-Turkish relations. Even so, Turkey temporarily withdrew its Ambassador to Washington.
In a sign of the power of historical consensus to yield concrete restitution, the French insurance giant AXA began making €8,000 (£7,200) payments yesterday to families of Armenian victims of the 1915 killings who bought policies from companies that AXA has since taken over.

France and Canada have classified the killings as genocide. Britain, like the US, has not.


guardian.co.uk

Stephen Kinzer
Friday 5 March 2010 00.28 GMT

For the US house of representatives foreign affairs committee to decide that the killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915 constituted genocide, as it did Thursday by a one-vote margin, would be acceptable and even praiseworthy if it were part of a serious historical effort to review all the great atrocities of modern history. But the singling out of Turks for censure, among all the killers of the 20th century, is something quite different. This vote was a triumph of emotion, a victory for ethnic lobbying, and another example of the age-old American impulse to play moral arbiter for the world.
Turkey recalled its ambassador in Washington immediately after the vote, which was broadcast live on Turkish television. The resolution now goes to the full House of Representatives. Given the pull of moneyed politics, and President Obama's unwillingness or inability to bring Congress to heel on this issue, as Presidents Bush and Clinton did, it could pass. That would provoke much anger in Turkey, and might weaken the US-Turkish relationship at the precise moment when the US needs to strengthen it.

In the past few years, Turkey has taken on a new and assertive role in the Middle East and beyond. Turkey can go places, talk to factions, and make deals that the US cannot. Yet it remains fundamentally aligned with western values and strategic goals. No other country is better equipped to help the US navigate through the region's treacherous deserts, steppes and mountains.
Would it be worth risking all of this to make a clear moral statement? Perhaps. What emerged from Washington this week, though, was no cry of righteous indignation. Various considerations, including the electoral power of Armenian-Americans, may have influenced members of Congress. It is safe to surmise, however, that few took time to weigh the historical record soberly and seek to place the Ottoman atrocity in the context of other 20th century massacres.

Two questions face Congress as it considers whether to call the 1915 killings genocide. The first is the simple historical question: was it or wasn't it? Then, however, comes an equally vexing second question: is it the responsibility of the US Congress to make sensitive judgments about events that unfolded long ago? The first question is debatable, the second is not.

Congress has neither the capacity nor the moral authority to make sweeping historical judgments. It will not have that authority until it sincerely investigates other modern slaughters – what about the one perpetrated by the British in Kenya during the 1950s, documented in a devastating study that won the 2006 Pulitzer prize? – and also confronts aspects of genocide in the history of the United States itself. Doing this would require an enormous amount of largely pointless effort. Congress would be wiser to recognise that it does not exist to penetrate the vicissitudes of history or dictate fatwas to the world.
This vote has already harmed US-Turkish relations because it has angered many Turks. If the resolution proceeds through Congress, it will cause more harm. This is lamentable, because declining US-Turkish relations will be bad for both countries and for the cause of regional stability. Just as bad, the vote threatens to upset the fragile reconciliation that has been underway between Turkey and Armenia in recent months.

In this episode is encapsulated one of the timeless truths of diplomacy. Emotion is the enemy of sound foreign policy; cool consideration of long-term self-interest is always wiser. Congress seems far from realising this.


Armenian 'genocide' vote unjust, says Turkey
US congressional panel's resolution describing 'genocide' of Armenians could damage relations, warns Turkish PM
Daniel Nasaw in Washington
guardian.co.uk

Friday 5 March 2010 10.21 GMT

Armenian orphans during the first world war. A US congressional panel labelled the massacre of Armenians as genocide. Photograph: John Elder/Reuters
Turkey's prime minister warned of serious damage to US-Turkish relations today after a congressional committee approved a resolution describing the massacre of more than 1 million Armenians by the Ottoman empire during the first world war as genocide.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his country had been accused of a crime it did not commit, adding that the resolution would hamper efforts by Turkey and Armenia to end a century of hostility.
Turkey last night recalled its ambassador after the house foreign affairs committee approved 23-22 the non-binding measure despite objections from the Obama administration, which had warned that such a move would harm relations with Turkey – a Nato ally with about 1,700 troops in Afghanistan – and could imperil fragile reconciliation talks between Turkey and Armenia.
The Turkish president, Abdullah Gul, called the resolution "an injustice to history and to the science of history".

Armenia applauded the passage of the measure, which its foreign minister, Edward Nalbandian, described as "an important step towards the prevention of crimes against humanity".
He added: "This is further proof of the devotion of the American people to universal human values and is an important step towards the prevention of crimes against humanity."
It remained unclear whether the resolution would come to a vote in the full house. A similar 2007 resolution died after intense lobbying by the Bush administration, amid fears it would damage relations between Turkey and the US.

Historians say that 1.5 million Armenians were killed by the Ottoman empire between 1915 and 1923, during a forced resettlement.
"The overwhelming historical evidence demonstrates that what took place in 1915 was genocide," writes Henri Barkey, a Turkey scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington DC, who nevertheless opposes the house resolution as a needless political manoeuvre.
The killings are considered one of the first instances of genocide in the 20th century. Turkey insists its historical records indicate no genocide took place, but points to a lack of common historical understanding over the events.

After centuries of foreign domination, Armenia won independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.
Under Swiss auspices, Turkey and Armenia have been negotiating a normalisation of bilateral relations and an opening of the border, outcomes which are strongly favoured by the US.
The house resolution is the product of intensive lobbying by Armenian-Americans. Last year the Armenian national committee of America spent $50,000 (£33,000) lobbying Congress on the resolution, which urged Barack Obama to characterise the events as genocide in an annual message commemorating the massacres.

During the presidential campaign, he referred to the killings as genocide, but did not use the term last year in a statement recognising Armenian remembrance day, which commemorates the massacres.
The secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, called a senior Democrat congressman, Howard Berman, on Wednesday to warn that the resolution could hurt US-Turkey relations.

A diplomatic mistake over Armenia
The US approval of the Armenian genocide resolution will hurt Turkish efforts to build bridges in the region
Bulent Aras
guardian.co.uk

Friday 5 March 2010 18.07 GMT

As Stephen Kinzer has noted, this vote has already harmed US-Turkish relations because it has angered many Turks. However, this year the usual political dance occurred in a different context. It may be surprising to hear, but the genocide ruling has also harmed the normalisation of relations between Turkey and Armenia. In Switzerland in October 2009, two protocols were signed by foreign ministers of both countries to set a framework for the normalisation of relations between the two and the opening of their border.

The implementation of the protocols is only possible after ratification by both parliaments. These protocols have already been a matter of serious discussion and controversy in the domestic politics of Turkey and Armenia. The Armenian constitutional court's legal assessment of the protocols was seen to be an unconstructive move in Turkey. However, there is still a strong political will and popular support for an improvement in Turkish-Armenian relations.

After the genocide ruling, the Turkish foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, underlined once again that Turkey is determined to continue efforts to normalise ties with Armenia. Davutoglu is the intellectual architect of a new foreign policy – his so-called "backdoor diplomacy" – which has the ambitious vision of "zero problems" with all Turkey's neighbouring countries. This vision aims to not only minimise problems with neighbouring states but also constructively address any problems beyond its immediate neighbourhood. Turkey's mediation in the indirect talks between Syria and Israel, its positive role in Lebanese and Iraqi reconciliation, mediating in the Syria-Iraq dispute and bridging the gap between Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia are just few examples of this.

Turkey was the first country to initiate regional shuttle diplomacy following the Russian-Georgian conflict, resulting in the creation of the Caucasus Stability and Co-operation Platform to facilitate communication between the countries of the region, including Russia. Turkey invited Armenia to the platform, and this initiative is the first of its kind, with an all-inclusive approach to addressing problems in the Caucasus. There is strong evidence that Turkish foreign policy makers would pursue the normalisation process with utmost care and sensitivity.

Davutoglu's vision relies on a win-win strategy in regional policy with the principles of security for all, multicultural coexistence, economic interdependence and high-level political dialogue. He was right when he commented on the committee vote as the result of a lack of strategic vision. The Turkish-Armenian normalisation process also helped efforts to solve the Nagorno-Karabakh issue, such as the Minsk process and Russian mediation attempts. For the sake of such peace initiatives it is vital to keep the normalisation process alive. Any progress in Azeri-Armenian relations will have a positive impact on Turkish-Armenian relations and vice versa. The alternative is status quo in the Caucasus, which is not sustainable for regional and international security.

The genocide bill simultaneously harms Turkish-Armenian normalisation and the intensified peace attempts to solve the Karabakh problem. It is for the benefit of the US, Turkey and Armenia to pursue constructive policies for the normalisation process. There is a historic chance of making real progress in Turkish-Armenian relations, which is likely to make the Caucasus a better place to live. The Obama administration should think twice about blocking this landmark opportunity

Turkey threatens 'serious consequences' after US vote on Armenian genocide
Strategic partnership at risk despite Barack Obama's attempts to stop Congress resolution
Robert Tait in Istanbul and Ewen MacAskill in Washington
guardian.co.uk, Friday 5 March 2010 21.34 GMT

Foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu says describing the 1915 Armenian killings as genocide is an insult to Turkey’s 'honour'. Photograph: Adem Altan/AFP/Getty Images
Turkey has threatened to downgrade its strategic relationship with the US amid nationalist anger over a vote in the US Congress that defined the mass killings of Armenians during the first world war as genocide.

Barack Obama's administration, which regards Turkey as an important ally, was today desperately seeking to defuse the row. It expressed its frustration with the House of Representatives' foreign affairs committee, which voted 23-22 yesterday in favour of a resolution labelling the 1915 massacre of up to 1.5 million Armenians a "genocide".

A furious Turkey may now deny the US access to the Incirlik air base, a staging post for Iraq, as it did at the time of the 2003 invasion, or withdraw its sizeable troop contribution to the coalition forces in Afghanistan.

On the diplomatic front, the US needs the support of Turkey, which has a seat on the UN security council, in the push for sanctions against Iran over its nuclear programme. Turkey is also helpful to the US on a host of other diplomatic issues in the Middle East and central Asia.
The White House and state department began work today to try to prevent the controversial issue making its way to the floor of the house for a full vote.
In Turkey, Suat Kiniklioglu, the influential deputy chairman for external affairs in the ruling Justice and Development party (AKP), warned of "major consequences" if the resolution was accepted by the full House of Representatives.

"If they choose to bring this to the floor they will have to face the fact that the consequences would be serious – the relationship would be downgraded at every level," he said. "Everything from Afghanistan to Pakistan to Iraq to the Middle East process would be affected.

"There would be major disruption to the relationship between Turkey and the US."
His comments reflected deep-seated anger throughout Turkish society, as well as an official determination to press the Obama administration into making sure the resolution progresses no further.
Turkey withdrew its ambassador to Washington for urgent "consultations" immediately after the vote, which was screened live on nationwide television.
Its foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, appeared to blame the outcome on the White House, and said that describing the 1915 Armenian killings as genocide was an insult to Turkey's "honour". France and Canada have both classified the killings as genocide, unlike Britain.

"The picture shows that the US administration did not put enough weight behind the issue," Davutoglu told a news conference. "We are seriously disturbed by the result."
The mass killing of up to 1.5 million Armenians has long been a highly sensitive subject in Turkey. While the issue is now more openly debated than in the past, Turkish officials insist that to describe it as genocide equates it with the Nazi Holocaust.

Turkey admits that hundreds of thousands of Armenians died, but disputes suggestions that it was part of a programme to eliminate the population, insisting instead that many died of disease. It has also suggested that the numbers have been inflated, and pointed out that many Turks died at the hands of Armenians.
Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, who is on a visit to South America, stressed that both she and Obama opposed the house vote and wanted to see it go no further. She said any action by Congress was not appropriate. "We do not believe that the full Congress will, or should, act upon that resolution, and we have made that clear to all the parties involved."
Asked how she squared her support for the Armenian campaign on the election campaign trail with her new position, she said circumstances had changed, with the Turkish and Armenian governments engaged in talks on normalisation and a historical commission established to look at past events.

"I do not think it is for any other country to determine how two countries resolve matters between them, to the extent that actions that the United States might take could disrupt this process," she said.
The chairman of the Armenian National Committee of America, Ken Hachikian, who led the lobbying campaign to get the house committee to back the resolution, today dismissed the Turkish threat of reprisals. "This is part of a Turkish pattern or huffing and puffing. With the other 20 countries that have passed similar resolutions, they made similar threats and then it was business as usual," he said.
Hachikian, who is based in Washington, said he hoped the vote would go to the full house before 24 April, Armenian genocide commemoration day. He accused Obama and Clinton of hypocrisy in trying to block a vote, saying they had supported the Armenian campaign during the presidential election.

He said the Turkish government had spent $1m during the past few months lobbying members of Congress. His committee had spent only $75,000, which included adverts in media outlets read by members of Congress and their staff.

Although Hachikian claimed to have the votes needed, and 215 members of the 435-member house have publicly backed the resolution, the chances of a full vote are small, given the opposition from the White House and state department.
The vote came as attempts at rapproche

ment between Turkey and Armenia – which have no diplomatic ties – had already run aground. A protocol signed in Geneva last October promising to restore relations has yet to be ratified by the parliament of either country.

Both Turkish and Armenian analysts voiced fears that the protocols may now be doomed.