WASHINGTON (AFP) — The White House, fearing fallout on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, battled Thursday to repair ties with Turkey after a US vote to label the World War I massacre of Armenians as "genocide."
Following Wednesday's vote by the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, aides to President George W. Bush said top administration officials would lobby the full Democratic-led chamber against the resolution.
"Turkey is playing a critical role in the war on terror and this action is problematic for everything we're trying to do in the Middle East and would cause great harm to our efforts," White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said.
Fueling the tensions, Turkey's government will formally ask parliament next week to approve an incursion into northern Iraq to crack down on Kurdish rebels taking refuge there, according to a ruling party official.
The Bush administration, worried about destabilizing one of the few pockets of calm in Iraq, has strongly urged Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government against a cross-border raid on the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
Another White House spokesman, Gordon Johndroe, recapped that Bush, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates had all lobbied House members to halt the Armenia genocide legislation.
He said "and we'll continue to do that as long as this resolution is still out there."
With House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rumored to be considering a full vote on the non-binding measure for November, Gates warned of Turkish reprisals that would harm the US military effort in Iraq.
Speaking in London, Gates said that 70 percent of air cargo, 30 percent of fuel shipments and 95 percent of new mine resistant armored vehicles destined for US forces in Iraq go through Turkey.
"The Turks have been quite clear about some of the measures they would have to take if this resolution passes," he said after talks with his British counterpart Des Browne.
"It's worth noting that the French parliament passed a similar resolution, and there were a number of steps taken by the Turkish government to punish, if you will, the French."
Egemen Bagis, vice chairman of Erdogan's ruling party, said in Washington that following the French lower house's resolution in 2006, Turkey has refused to grant overflight rights to the French air force.
If Turkey withdraws US access to the vast Incirlik air base, "just imagine what this will do to the United States," he said at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Incirlik is also a major staging point for US military supplies bound for Afghanistan.
After several House members suggested in Wednesday's debate that any Turkish reaction would be short-lived, Bagis said: "Those who claim Turkey is bluffing should not mock Turkey on live TV."
The official added that Turkish frustration over the PKK was reaching a boiling point, and that the "only remedy" to the Armenia vote was US cooperation against the Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq.
According to the Armenians, 1.5 million of their kinsmen were killed from 1915 to 1923 under an Ottoman Empire campaign of deportation and murder.
Rejecting the genocide label, Turkey argues that 250,000 to 500,000 Armenians and at least as many Turks died in civil strife when Armenians took up arms for independence in eastern Anatolia during World War I.
Hailing the House panel's vote, Armenian President Robert Kocharian said: "The fact that Turkey has adopted a position of denial of genocide does not mean that it can bind other states to deny the historic truth as well."
But Ankara continued to simmer over what President Abdullah Gul denounced as "petty games of domestic politics" by US lawmakers.
"We still hope that the House of Representatives will have enough good sense not to take this resolution further," a Turkish government statement said.
To do so, it said, would jeopardize a strategic partnership with a NATO ally and friend and would be an "irresponsible attitude."
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