Turkey: Warns US Congress against Armenian Genocide Bill

Turkish officials are cautioning that Ankara will jettison plans to reconcile with Armenia if a US congressional committee endorses a resolution to term Ottoman Turkey's 1915 massacre of ethnic Armenians as genocide. Ties with Washington would also suffer, they said.

The House Foreign Affairs Committee is scheduled to consider the resolution on March 4. It calls for Washington to use the word "genocide" in future references to the Ottoman-era horror, an event that has hindered the normalization of Turkish-Armenian relations for almost a century.

"We want to believe that members of the Committee on Foreign Affairs are aware of the harm which would be done to Turkey-US relations and efforts for peace and stability in [the] South Caucas[us]," Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Burak Özügergin was quoted on March 2 as saying by Turkish daily Today's Zaman.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on March 1 that an "incorrect move" by the US Congress would "torpedo" plans to normalize plans between Turkey and Armenia, Today's Zaman reported. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

In Yerevan, Armenian officials called on Ankara to stop trying to influence US legislative deliberations. "We hope that Turkey will rid itself of artificial complexes created by the Turkish side and that we will be able to move forward in accordance with our understandings." Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian said during a news conference, referring to the Turkish-Armenian reconciliation process.