Armenian 'genocide' vote causes rift

Updated 17.14 Thu Oct 11 2007

Keywords: Ottoman Empire, House Foreign Affairs Committee, genocide, Armenia, US, Turkey, President George W Bush

A decision by the US to recognise the mass killing of Armenians in 1915 as genocide has created tension with Turkey.

A Bill was passed by a US congressional committee despite intense lobbying by Turkish officials and opposition from 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.

The US President warned the move could harm US-Turkish relations, which are already tense as Turkey considers staging a military offensive into Iraq against Kurdish rebels who have hideouts there.

The US fears such an operation could destabilise one of the few relatively peaceful areas in Iraq.

The Turkish government condemned the panel's vote in a statement: "It is not possible to accept such an accusation of a crime which was never committed by the Turkish nation."

It added: "It is blatantly obvious that the House Committee on Foreign Affairs does not have a task or function to rewrite history by distorting a matter which specifically concerns the common history of Turks and Armenians"

That opinion was reflected in Turkish newspapers who denounced the decision with headlines including "27 foolish Americans," and "Despite Bush, it (the Bill) is passed."

Now, the US Embassy has urged its citizens to be alert for possible violence after the vote, amid fears of an increase in anti-American feeling in Turkey.

Annoyance over the Bill has long prevented a thorough domestic discussion of what happened to a once sizable Armenian population under Ottoman rule.

Armenians say up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed in a systematic genocide between 1915-17, before modern Turkey was born in 1923.

Turkey says the killings occurred at a time of civil unrest as the Ottoman Empire was falling apart, and that the numbers are inflated.