From CNN (sorry I lost the link):
Angry Turks ready to cut U.S. ties
Story Highlights
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) -- With Turkish-U.S. relations strained, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday that Turkey would not be deterred by the diplomatic consequences if it decides to stage a cross-border offensive into Iraq against Kurdish rebels.
"If such an option is chosen, whatever its price, it will be paid," Erdogan told reporters in response to a question about the international repercussions of such a decision, which would strain ties with the United States and Iraq. "There could be pros and cons of such a decision, but what is important is our country's interests."
Erdogan also had harsh words for the United States, which opposes a Turkish incursion into northern Iraq -- one of the country's few relatively stable areas.
"Did they seek permission from anyone when they came from a distance of 10,000 kilometers and hit Iraq?" he said. "We do not need anyone else's advice."
Analysts say Turkey could be less restrained about defying the United States because of a congressional committee's approval of a resolution labeling the mass killings of Armenians around the time of World War I as genocide.
"Democrats are harming the future of the United States and are encouraging anti-American sentiments," Erdogan said. Democratic leaders in the House of Representatives support the resolution.
Erdogan said Turkey was ready to sacrifice good ties with Washington if necessary.
"Let it snap from wherever it gets thin," Erdogan said, using a Turkish expression that means breaking ties with someone or something.
At issue in the resolution is the killing of up to 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman Turks. Turkey denies that the deaths constituted genocide, saying the toll has been inflated, and those killed were victims of civil war and unrest that killed Muslims as well as the overwhelmingly Christian Armenians.
Turkey, a key supply route to U.S. troops in Iraq, recalled its ambassador to Washington for consultations and warned of serious repercussions if Congress passes the resolution.
"In the United States, there are several narrow-minded legislators who can't think of their own interests and who cannot understand the importance of Turkey," said Murat Mercan, head of the Turkish parliament's foreign relations committee.
Turkish authorities have refused to comment on whether Turkey might shut down Incirlik air base in southern Turkey, a major cargo hub for U.S. and allied military forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. Turkey's Mediterranean port of Iskenderun is also used to ferry goods to American troops.
The Yeni Safak newspaper, which is close to the Turkish government, said Friday that Incirlik and $15 billion worth of defense contracts, including purchase of warplanes, missile and radar systems, could be reviewed. Turkey could also prevent U.S. firms from taking part in new contracts, Yeni Safak said.
Erdogan said Turkey has long been seeking the cooperation of Iraq and the United States in its fight against Kurdish guerrillas, but there has been no crackdown on the rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party, which has bases in Iraq. Erdogan said a recent anti-terrorism deal signed with Iraq was not valid since it had not been approved by Iraq's parliament yet.
The Turkish parliament was expected to approve a government request to authorize an Iraq campaign as early as next week, after a holiday ending the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
"We are making necessary preparations to be ready in case we decide on a cross-border operation since we don't have patience to lose more time," Erdogan said, adding that Turkey has lost 30 people in rebel attacks over the past two weeks.
Bahoz Erdal, a senior rebel commander, said the PKK fighters were moving further inside Turkey and taking new "positions" in the face of attacks from Turkey, pro-Kurdish Firat News Agency reported Friday. The agency is based in Belgium.
The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people since 1984.
[/quote]Armenian Patriarch condemns anti-Turkish resolution
Ankara has warned that the resolution will harm Turkish-US relations and has vowed to lobby against its being ratified by Congress.
DEMRE - The head of the Armenian church in Turkey said he opposed the passing of a resolution by the US House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs acknowledging claims the Ottoman Empire committed an act of genocide against its Armenian citizens in World War One. Haberin devamı
Patriarch Mesrob Mutafyan said the resolution had become a tool of US domestic policy and that he and other Turkish Armenians would do everything in their power to prevent the resolution being passed into law by a vote of the US Congress.
Last Tuesday, the Committee on Foreign Affairs voted 27 to 21 in favour of the resolution, which is opposed by the Bush administration. Senior US officials, including President George W Bush and Secretary of State Condalezza Rice, have spoke out against the resolution and promised Ankara they will work to prevent it from passing into law.
Speaking in the southern Turkish town of Demre Sunday, where he was visiting the Church of Saint Nicolas, Patriarch Mesrob said that criticisms over the resolution should not extend to Turkey’s own Armenian community.
The proposal by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan Erdogan to set up a joint commission of historians with Armenia to study the issue was an important offer, and one that should be acted on, the Patriarch said.
www.ntvmsnbc.com/news/422972.asp
www.newsvine.com/_news/2007/10/11/10193 ... ons-for-usTurkey Threatens Repercussions for US
Thu Oct 11, 2007 5:51 PM EDTworld-news, us, turkey, genocideChristopher Torchia, AP WriterHouse Speaker Nancy Pelosi says the resolution shouldn't affect U.S. relations with Turkey.Images (showing 1 of 7 photos)
Members of the left-wing Workers' Party wave Turkish flags as they chant slogans during a protest against the U.S. and its passing of a bill describing World War I-era killings of Armenians as genocide, Istanbul, Turkey, Thursday, Oct. 11, 2007. Despite intense lobbying by Turkish officials and opposition by U.S. President George W. Bush, the House Foreign Affairs Committee passed the bill by a 27-21 vote, a move likely to be considered an insult by most Turks. (AP Photo/Murad Sezer)
Members of the left-wing Workers' Party wave Turkish flags as they chant slogans during a protest against the U.S. and its passing of a bill describing World War I-era killings of Armenians as genocide, Istanbul, Turkey, Thursday, Oct. 11, 2007. Despite intense lobbying by Turkish officials and opposition by U.S. President George W. Bush, the House Foreign Affairs Committee passed the bill by a 27-21 vote, a move likely to be considered an insult by most Turks. (AP Photo/Murad Sezer)
Members of the left-wing Workers' Party chant slogans as they wave Turkish flags during a protest against the U.S. and its passing of a bill describing World War I-era killings of Armenians as genocide, in Istanbul, Turkey, Thursday, Oct. 11, 2007. Despite intense lobbying by Turkish officials and opposition by U.S. President George W. Bush, the House Foreign Affairs Committee passed the bill by a 27-21 vote, a move likely to be considered an insult by most Turks. (AP Photo/Ibrahim Usta)
Members of the left-wing Workers' Party wave Turkish flags, while a man, second from left, holds a banner reading, "Genocide is a lie and it's an American game", as they chant slogans during a protest against the U.S. and its passing of a bill describing World War I-era killings of Armenians as genocide, Istanbul, Turkey, Thursday, Oct. 11, 2007. Despite intense lobbying by Turkish officials and opposition by U.S. President George W. Bush, the House Foreign Affairs Committee passed the bill by a 27-21 vote, a move likely to be considered an insult by most Turks. (AP Photo/Murad Sezer)
Demonstrators, members of the left-wing Workers' Party, wave their party and Turkish flags as they gather in a protest against the U.S. in down town in Istanbul, Turkey, Thursday, Oct. 11, 2007. Turkey swiftly condemned a House panel's approval of a bill describing the World War I-era mass killings of Armenians as genocide. The House Foreign Affairs Committee passed the bill Wednesday by a 27-21 vote despite intense lobbying by Turkish officials. (AP Photo / Serkan Senturk)
Members of the left-wing Workers' Party carry a huge Turkish flag during a protest against the U.S. and its passing of a bill describing World War I-era killings of Armenians as genocide, in Istanbul, Turkey, Thursday, Oct. 11, 2007. Despite intense lobbying by Turkish officials and opposition by U.S. President George W. Bush, the House Foreign Affairs Committee passed the bill by a 27-21 vote, a move likely to be considered an insult by most Turks. (AP Photo/Murad Sezer)
Members of the left-wing Workers' Party wave Turkish flags as they chant slogans during a protest against the U.S. and its passing of a bill describing World War I-era killings of Armenians as genocide, Istanbul, Turkey, Thursday, Oct. 11, 2007. Despite intense lobbying by Turkish officials and opposition by U.S. President George W. Bush, the House Foreign Affairs Committee passed the bill by a 27-21 vote, a move likely to be considered an insult by most Turks. (AP Photo/Ibrahim Usta)
ANKARA — Turkey, which is a key supply route to U.S. troops in Iraq, recalled its ambassador to Washington on Thursday and warned of serious repercussions if Congress labels the killing of Armenians by Turks a century ago as genocide.
Ordered after a House committee endorsed the genocide measure, the summons of the ambassador for consultations was a further sign of the deteriorating relations between two longtime allies and the potential for new turmoil in an already troubled region.
Egeman Bagis, an aide to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, told Turkish media that Turkey — a conduit for many of the supplies shipped to American bases in both Iraq and Afghanistan — might have to "cut logistical support to the U.S."
Analysts also have speculated the resolution could make Turkey more inclined to send troops into northern Iraq to hunt Turkish Kurd rebels, a move opposed by the U.S. because it would disrupt one of the few relatively stable and peaceful Iraqi areas.
"There are steps that we will take," Turkey's prime minister told reporters, but without elaboration. It also wasn't clear if he meant his government would act immediately or wait to see what happens to the resolution in Congress.
He declined to answer questions about whether Turkey might shut down Incirlik air base in southern Turkey, a major cargo hub for U.S. and allied military forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. Turkey's Mediterranean port of Iskenderun is also used to ferry goods to American troops.
"You don't talk about such things, you just do them," Erdogan said.
The measure before Congress is just a nonbinding resolution without the force of law, but the debate has incensed Turkey's government.
The relationship between the two NATO allies, whose troops fought together in the Korean War in 1950-53, have stumbled in the past. They hit a low in 2003, when Turkey's parliament refused to allow U.S. forces use their country as a staging ground for the invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.
But while the threat of repercussions against the U.S. is appealing for many Turks, the country's leaders know such a move could hurt Turkey's standing as a reliable ally of the West and its ambitions to be a mediator on the international stage.
The Turks did suspend military ties with France last year after parliament's lower house approved a bill that would have made it a crime to deny the mass killings of Armenians in Turkey amounted to genocide. But Turkey has much more to lose from cutting ties to the U.S.
The United States is one of its major business partners, with $11 billion in trade last year, and the U.S. defense industry provides much of the Turkish military's equipment.
Turkey's ambassador in Washington, Nabi Sensoy, was ordered home for discussions with the Turkish leadership about what is happening in Congress, Foreign Minister spokesman Levent Bilman said. He said Sensoy would go back after seven to 10 days.
"We are not withdrawing our ambassador. We have asked him to come to Turkey for some consultations," Bilman said. "The ambassador was given instructions to return and will come at his earliest convenience."
The Bush administration, which is lobbying strongly in hopes of persuading Congress to reject the resolution, stressed the need for good relations with Turkey.
"We look forward to his quick return and will continue to work to maintain strong U.S.-Turkish relations," said Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for the National Security Council. "We remain opposed to House Resolution 106 because of the grave harm it could bring to the national security of the United States."
Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the measure is damaging relations at a time when U.S. forces in Iraq rely heavily on Turkish permission to use their airspace for cargo flights.
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.
U.S.-Turkish ties already had been strained by Turkey's complaint the U.S. hasn't done enough to stop Turkish Kurd rebels from using bases in northern Iraq to stage attacks in southeastern Turkey, a predominantly Kurdish region where tens of thousands have died in fighting since 1984.
Turkish warplanes and helicopter gunships attacked suspected positions of Kurdish rebels on the border this week and Turkey's parliament was expected to vote next week on a proposal to allow the military to pursue a large-scale offensive in northern Iraq.
The U.S. ambassador to Turkey, Ross Wilson, was invited to the Foreign Ministry, where officials conveyed their "unease" over the resolution in Congress and asked the Bush administration do all in its power to stop passage by the full House, a Foreign Ministry official said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to make press statements.
Historians estimate up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed by Ottoman Turks around the time of World War I. Turkey denies the deaths constituted genocide, saying the killings didn't come from a coordinated campaign but rather during unrest accompanying the Ottoman Empire's collapse.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee passed the resolution Wednesday despite intense lobbying by Turkish officials and the opposition from President Bush. The vote was a triumph for well-organized Armenian-American interest groups that have lobbied Congress for decades to pass a resolution.
The administration will now try to pressure Democratic leaders in Congress not to schedule a vote, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi indicated they were committed to going forward.
"Why do it now? Because there's never a good time and all of us in the Democratic leadership have supported" it, she said.
Turkish officials said the House had no business to get involved in writing history.
"It is not possible to accept such an accusation of a crime which was never committed by the Turkish nation," Turkey's government said after the committee adopted the measure.
___
Associated Press writers C. Onur Ant in Istanbul and Suzan Fraser in Ankara contributed to this report.
(This version CORRECTS SUBS 24th graf, `The House ...' to correct time to Wednesday sted Thursday)
© 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
tombombadil.newsvine.com/_news/2007/10/14/1024767-pelosi-and-congress-botch-us-turkey-relations-Pelosi and Congress Botch U.S. - Turkey Relations
News Type: Event — Seeded on Sun Oct 14, 2007 5:10 PM EDTArticle Source: MSNBCiraq, kurdistan, kurds, genocide, gen-yasar-buyukanit, nancy-pelosi, muslims, world-news, world-war-one, us, turkeySeeded by Tom Bombadil
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.
C'mon. After almost a century the House is condemning Turkey?
If Turkey invades Iraq, won't we have to go to war against Turkey because we have put ourselves in the position to defend Iraq now? Who else would side with Turkey against the U.S. if this happens? Iran? yes. Russia and China? Thoughts?
Am I wrong or does this sound like it could potentially be the beginning of WWIII?
Thanks Nancy.
Well put, Holsety.
