Turkish Army Chief Says U.S. Ties At Risk

Source: Reuters

By Paul de Bendern

ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey's powerful military chief said on Sunday if the U.S. Congress approved a resolution branding the 1915 killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks genocide ties between the NATO allies would never be the same again.

Ankara is a crucial ally for Washington, which relies on Turkey as a logistical base for the war in Iraq.

Some analysts believe the vote could weaken Washington's influence over Turkey and increase the likelihood of a Turkish incursion into northern Iraq to crush Kurdish separatist rebels, who use the territory to stage attacks into Turkey.

"If the resolution that has passed in the U.S. committee is accepted by the assembly of the House of Representatives our military relations with the United States can never be the same again," chief of General Staff, General Yasar Buyukanit, told newspaper Milliyet in his first public comments on the issue.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071014/pl_nm/turkey_usa_military_dc

allies!

Oh wait, I get it... if Turkey invades Iraq, Chimpy can declare victory and we can leave.

blackwater selling arms to Kurds. We got bushler's buddys at hunt oil signing a seperate oil deal with the kurds. We got our congress fooling around with this "non-binding" condemnation about what the Turks/Ottomans did 100 years ago. Somehow, it seems like we are cutting Turkey as an ally, but why? Why now?:shrug:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/10/washington/10cnd-armenia.html

It could be in part because the Kurds deal with Hunt undercut his master plan for Iraq, but IMHO the current Turkish threats are being encouraged by the WH.

"Justice" for genocide is now reduced to a speech act--the dead can rest in peace and their descendants can feel that justice has been served by having the US declare what the Turks did to be genocide.

Moreover, it's not the perpetrators or their ethnos that needs to admit to it: We can stop future genocides by "admitting to" (which usually means about the same as "confessing to") a past one. I, for one, don't see a reason for the US to admit to having committed genocide, and for the US to admit to having the Turks commit genocide sounds too skewed for parsing.

Maybe you misread or I was not clear, the US is not confessing anything, it is recognizing a genocide committed by Turkey some 90 years ago as a genocide the US had nothing to do with the act it self. My point was that the Democratic lead Congress is sponsoring this resolution it was drawn up by a Democrat in response to his constituents, however Bush opposes this resolution and may be quietly encouraging the Turkish threats, in any event he certainly is not discouraging the Turks.

last week that popular opinion in Turkey is already very anti-America, and pre-Bush,according to him was not. He says there has been a tremendous change over there, that the turks used to love American "culture", and that he was surprised to see the hugeness of the change in perception.

to get rid of the PKK? Then they'll leave? Yea right Turkey has absolutely no interest in annexing northern Kurdistan just because it has lots of oil ah huh and the US invaded Iraq to free the Iraqi people.
As far as the Armenian genocide goes, it was 90 years ago, the government that committed it was over thrown in the 1920's when M.Kemal Attaturk became president, nationalism not withstanding Turkey needs to learn all great countries are forced to eat crow every so often.
To the current threats-Turkey made lots of noise when Iraq was invaded too, maybe it is time to once again ask how much NATO membership means to them, along with possible EU membership, which could be maybe part of the bargain.

then who killed all these people in Turkey lately, The Turrks themselfes???? The fact is that the iraqi kurds do support the pkk to de-stabilize Turkey to create a greater kurdistan. The Turks have all the right to invade northern iraq and to stop the kurds from achiving their demonic goal.

I did not say the PKK was bogus, I said Turkey had ulterior motives, that being oil and BTW the Kurds are not trying to destabilize all of Turkey as you imply, the PKK are only interested in the border region which has an ethnic Kurd majority that has been severely repressed by the Turkish government.
As far as people dieing it would depend who you are talking about Turkish military or Kurdish civilian?

http://www.fas.org/asmp/profiles/turkey_background_kurds.htm

and not just astrip along the border. In the maps made by the kurds they demand all the land till the capital ankara. The pkk is supported only by a minority of kurds in Turkey, some 10-15% of the kurds. The Turks will never give away land not even an inch!

made an incursion into Iraq some months ago along the northern border and are preparing to start oil drilling operations, this is word of mouth so to speak from someone who is in the area.
The Kurdish population in Turkey is concentrated along the southern border and extends in into Iran, who BTW is partnering with the Turks to fight the Kurds, yet oddly the US turns a blind eye to this.

I have no idea how the Armenian resolution came up before the House. I am guessing it was because the Committee Chairman was a Holocaust survivor.

It is not the business of the US Congress to judge 90 year old disputes. It is the business of the US Congress to try to stop current genocide and wars. This resolution has thrown gasoline on an extremely violatile region and could end up costing lives of US servicepersons.

It's pure stupidity.