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| | GEO World | | Turkish furor over U.S. resolution on genocide | Updated at: 0651 PST, Saturday, March 06, 2010
 ISTANBUL: Turks are up in arms over the passing of a resolution by an American congressional committee on Thursday recognizing the killings of Armenians in 1915 as genocide.
Immediately after the 23-22 vote in favor of the resolution came in, the Prime Minister's Office released a statement warning of the consequences of the decision.
A press release by the government stated the result had been " met with sorrow" and denounced the resolution accusing the Turkish people of a crime they did not commit.
Turkey's official, and popular, stance has been that no genocide was committed in 1915 and it regards the events as civil strife in wartime claiming the lives of many Turks and Armenians.
Turks have been very sensitive to genocide allegations; the president of the Human Rights Association Ozturk Turkdogan told media, "When the word genocide comes up, Turks just shut their ears."
Turkdogan added, "Turkey is an ideological nation-state, and like other ideological nation-states, it has difficulty facing up to its past."
Former Democratic Left Party (DSP) parliamentarian Teoman Akgur told media that the resolution will not pass in the long run, as "some hero will block it before it becomes a bill." Similar non- binding resolutions had been passed by the House of Representatives' Foreign Relations Committee in 2000, 2005 and 2007, but all of which had been blocked by White House pressure from going to a general House vote.
Yet the office of the prime minister warned, "We worry that the passing of this resolution by the committee despite all our admonitions might harm Turkish-U.S. relations and might halt the Turkey-Armenia normalization process." |  |
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