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Warning Follows Announcement of
Obama's Visit Turkey in April
ANKARA (Combined
Sources)--Turkey's Foreign Minister Ali Babacan said Sunday there
was a "risk" that US President Barack Obama would recognize the
Armenian Genocide. He also warned against such a move, noting it
would affect the normalization of relations between Turkey and
Armenia.
“I still see a risk,” he said in an interview with the NTV
television channel . “Mr. Obama made the promise five times in a
row.” However, he added, “The new American administration
understands Turkey's sensibilities better today.”
According to Babacan,”It would not be rational for a third country
to take a position on this topic. A bad step by the United States
would only worsen the process” of reconciliation between Armenia and
Turkey.
The Anatolian News Agency reported Sunday that during a joint news
conference after meeting with Paraguay's Foreign Minister Alejandro
Hamed Franco on Sunday, Babacan said the genocide issue was on the
agenda during U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's visit to
Turkey on Saturday.
Obama to Visit Turkey in April
Babacan's warning came a day after US Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton announced in Ankara that Obama would visit Turkey "within
the next month or so." The visit will take place in April.
The Turkish Hurriyet Daily reported Monday that unnamed diplomatic
sources and analysts say that Ankara is likely to start taking
“concrete measures” soon toward reconciliation with Armenia.
Clinton, who was in Turkey meeting with Babacan, President Abdullah
Gul, and Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said her trip aimed at
emphasizing the work the U.S. and Turkey must do “on behalf of
peace, prosperity, and progress.”
The President's visit also represents a good opportunity to “impress
upon Turkey's government and society the importance that he attaches
to Turkey ending its denial of the Armenian Genocide and lifting its
blockade of Armenia,” said the Executive Director of the Armenian
National Committee of America, Aram Hamparian.
The US State Department on Saturday issued a joint statement from
Clinton and Babacan reaffirming the close U.S.-Turkish relationship.
The statement said, both countries pledged to pursue an Arab-Israeli
peace settlement, peace in the southern Caucasus region,
normalization of Turkish-Armenian relations and a settlement of the
Cyprus question -- a dispute between Greek and Turkish Cypriots over
territory.
President Obama said several times during his election campaign that
he would recognize the 1915-1917 massacres under the Ottoman Empire
as genocide. The United States has previously condemned the killings
while not calling them genocide to avoid tensions with Turkey, a
NATO member and key Middle East ally.
On Jan. 19, in a statement on the importance of relations between
the U.S. and Armenia, Obama said, “As a senator, I strongly support
passage of the Armenian Genocide Resolution (H.Res.106 and
S.Res.106), and as President I will recognize the Armenian
Genocide.”
Although there is a wide consensus among genocide and Holocaust
scholars that the Armenian Genocide took place, the Turkish state
continues to vehemently deny that a state-sponsored campaign took
the lives of approximately 1.5 million Armenians during World War I.
The Armenians, the official Turkish argument goes, were victims of
ethnic strife, or war and starvation, just like many Muslims living
in the Ottoman Empire. Turkey invests millions of dollars in the
United States to lobby against resolutions recognizing the Armenian
Genocide and to produce denial's literature.
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