Turkey warns over Armenian genocide claims

Turkey’s top general has warned that military ties with the US will be irreversibly damaged if the US Congress passes a resolution that labels the World War I-era killings of Armenians a genocide, a report said today.

General Yasar Buyukanit told daily Milliyet newspaper that a congressional committee’s approval of the measure had already strained ties between the two countries.

“If this resolution passed in the committee passes the House as well, our military ties with the US will never be the same again,” Buyukanit was quoted as saying by Milliyet.

Turkey, which is a major cargo hub for US and allied military forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, has recalled its ambassador to Washington for consultations and warned that there might be a cut in the logistical support to the US over the issue.

About 70% of US air cargo headed for Iraq goes through Turkey as does about one-third of the fuel used by the US military there. US bases also get water and other supplies carried in overland by Turkish truckers who cross into Iraq’s northern Kurdish region.

In addition, C-17 cargo planes fly military supplies to US soldiers in remote areas of Iraq from Incirlik, avoiding the use of Iraqi roads vulnerable to bomb attacks. US officials say the arrangement helps reduce American casualties.

“I’m the military chief, I deal with security issues. I’m not a politician,” Buyukanit was quoted as saying by Milliyet. “In this regard, the US shot its own foot.”

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has “urged restraint” from Turkey and sent two high-ranking officials to Ankara in an apparent attempt to ease fury over the measure which could be voted on by the House by the end of the year.

Buyukanit’s remarks were published a day after a visit by Dan Fried, assistant secretary of state for European affairs, and Eric Edelman, who is the under-secretary of defence for policy.

“Secretary of State Rice Condoleezza Rice asked us before we came here to express that the Bush administration is opposed to this resolution,” Edelman said Saturday.

At issue in the resolution is the killing of up to 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman Turks. Many international historians contend the World War I-era deaths amounted to genocide, but Turkey says the mass killings and deportations were not systematic and that many Turkish Muslims died in the chaos of war.