10/11 Guardian: Ankara plays diplomatic 'hardball' with US

Ankara plays diplomatic 'hardball' with US

Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
Thursday October 11, 2007

Guardian Unlimited

Turkey today recalled its ambassador to Washington and warned that it would "play hardball" to persuade Congress to abandon a bill recognising the historic persecution of Armenians.
The diplomatic rebuke to Washington came amid furious lobbying by Bush administration officials to try to pull back the bill.

The measure, which was endorsed by the house foreign affairs committee, yesterday in defiance of warnings from White House and Turkish officials, would recognise the 1915 massacres and forced deportations of Armenians as a genocide.

A house vote on the bill could come as early as tomorrow. With that prospect looming, Turkish and US officials stepped up their pressure on Congress today.

A Turkish foreign ministry spokesman said the ambassador, Nabi Sensoy, would stay in Ankara for about a week or 10 days. "We are not withdrawing our ambassador. We have asked him to come to Turkey for some consultations," the spokesman, Levent Bilman, told reporters.

Meanwhile, the US ambassador to Turkey, Ross Wilson, was summoned to the foreign ministry in Ankara where officials expressed their "unease".

In Washington, a visiting adviser to the Turkish prime minister, Tayyip Erdogan, suggested there would be more such manoeuvres to come.

"I can assure you Turkey knows how to play hardball, the adviser, Egeman Bagis, told reporters.

The Turkish parliament is expected to vote next week to authorise a broader intervention into northern Iraq following yesterday's air strikes on suspected Kurdish rebel positions.

Such a move is opposed by the US and the European Union, who fear disrupting the relative peace in northern Iraq.

However, widespread anger in Turkey that Congress was moving forward on a bill to classify the first world war killings of Armenians as a genocide, could push Turkish legislators into supporting military strikes.

The foreign affairs committee in the House of Representatives defied appeals from President George Bush and warnings from Turkey on Wednesday to endorse a measure that would designate the massacre and forced deportations of Armenians in 1915 as a genocide.

The response from Ankara today was predictably harsh. "The committee's approval of this resolution was an irresponsible move, which at a greatly sensitive time will make relations with a friend and ally, and a strategic partnership nurtured over generations, more difficult," the foreign ministry said.

"Our government regrets and condemns this decision. It is unacceptable that the Turkish nation has been accused of something that never happened in history."

White House officials were almost as harsh, and said again today that they feared that Turkey would cut off vital supply lines to Iraq. About 70% of US air cargo for Iraq is routed through Turkey.

The warnings from US officials punctuated expressions of outrage that percolated down through the ranks of Turkish government and society.

Ankara's ambassador to Washington, Nabi Sensoy, said the resolution would damage the "psyche of the Turkish people", and lead to an anti-American backlash.


Turkish newpspapers also condemned the move in Congress, with the Hurriyet newspaper describing the measurer as a "bill of hatred".

The timing of the move in Congress could complicate efforts by America and the European Union to dissuade Turkey from a cross-border military incursion that could destabilise the relatively quiet situation in northern Iraq.

"Any possibility of complicating even more the security situation in Iraq is something that should not be welcome," the European Union foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, told reporters in Brussels today.

Public anger at the PKK is also high following the killing of 13 Turkish soldiers on Sunday.

However, the prime minister, Tayyip Erdogan, told CNN the measure would not necessarily lead to an immediate intervention against PKK Kurdish rebels believed to be based in the region.

"There have been 24 operations so far. Assessments have shown that they haven't yielded that much of a result. We are taking this into account," Mr Erdogan told CNN's Turkish language service.

The warnings from the Bush administration of the potential fallout on US-Turkish relations persuaded some members of Congress to withdraw their support for the measure today.

However, the house majority leader, Steny Hoyer, told Turkish officials that he hopes to bring the resolution to a vote before the end of the year. The resolution's future in the Senate is far less certain.

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/turkey/story/0,,2189217,00.html