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White House Urges Congress Not to Pass Armenian Genocide Resolution

VOA News 04 March 2010

The White House says a Congressional resolution declaring the World War I -era killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks as genocide could hurt relations between Armenia and Turkey.

A White House spokesman said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called the chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, Howard Berman Wednesday and indicated that further Congressional action could impede progress on normalization of relations between Turkey and Armenia.

The committee began debating the non-binding resolution Thursday ahead of a scheduled vote. If approved, the measure would then go to the full House for consideration.

Turkey has warned that its relations with the United States will be damaged if the House of Representatives passes the measure.

The White House says President Barack Obama spoke Wednesday with Turkish President Abdullah Gul and expressed appreciation for Turkish efforts to normalize relations with Armenia. Mr. Obama urged ratification of protocols signed between the countries last year.

Armenians say the massacres of some 1.5 million people between 1915 and 1923 were the result of an orchestrated campaign by the Ottoman Turks. Turkey strongly rejects the label of genocide, saying far fewer Armenians died and that they were killed in a civil war in which Turks also died.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told reporters in Cairo Wednesday that if the House resolution is adopted at the committee level, the Obama administration should take steps to ensure it is not voted on by Congress.

He said U.S. recognition of the killings as genocide would not only harm U.S.-Turkey relations, but ties between Turkey and Armenia. He said relations with Armenia are going through their best phase, with strong cooperation and a desire to end decades of enmity.

Turkey is a key ally of the United States and serves as a major supply route for U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Turkish and Armenian leaders signed protocols last year that would establish bilateral relations and open their shared border, but they have not been approved by either nation's parliament.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.