ok so this is a curious turn of events.
for a few weeks now, turkey has been massing its military (strange alliteration) on the northern border of iraq, claiming that the kurdish pkk has been launching attacks into turkey from iraq. this build up has been happening for some time now, but up to this point the turkish government has been persuaded by the americans not to go beyond a buildup. but--again (important for what follows) this is not something that is just now, all of a sudden, starting to happen.
on wednesday (i think) the house foreign relations committee passed a resolution that declared the 1915 turkish massacres of its armenian populations to have been genocide.
====
if you dont know the backstory, here is a page on the armenian genocide (framed as such)
http://www.armenian-genocide.org/
and here a bbc article on the general turkish position concerning 1915:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6386625.stm
caveat--the english language web-presence on this issue is heavily oriented around 1915 as genocide. i dont read turkish--if anyone has links to sites that represent the turkish position better than the bbc article, please post as it stands, i find this position a bit incomprehensible)
==================
the other complexity: relations between turkey and the kurdish population:
here is a short summary, from a blog (i know, i know...)
http://www.pinr.com/report.php?ac=vi...&language_id=1
================================
anyway, on wednesday the house frc passes a largely symbolic resolution declaring 1915 to have been genocide.
the turkish government flips its shit.
here's an nyt article over the flap itself:
Quote:
Turks Angry Over House Armenian Genocide Vote
By SEBNEM ARSU
ISTANBUL, Oct. 11 — Turkey reacted angrily Thursday to a House committee vote in Washington to condemn as genocide the mass killings of Armenians in Turkey that began during World War I, recalling its ambassador from Washington and threatening to withdraw its support for the Iraq war.
In uncharacteristically strong language, President Abdullah Gul criticized the vote by the House Foreign Relations Committee in a statement to the semi-official Anatolian News Agency, and warned that the decision could work against the United States.
“Unfortunately, some politicians in the United States have once more dismissed calls for common sense, and made an attempt to sacrifice big issues for minor domestic political games,” President Gul said.
The House vote comes at a particularly inopportune time. Washington has called on Turkey to show restraint as its military mobilizes on the border with Iraq, threatening an incursion against Kurdish insurgents. On Thursday, Turkish warplanes were reported to be flying close to the border, but not crossing it.
The possibility of Turkish military intervention in Iraq against Kurdish separatists has long worried American officials for its potential to ignite a wider war. On Wednesday, the Turkish government began the process of gaining parliamentary approval to conduct cross-border operations.
The committee vote in the House, though nonbinding and largely symbolic, rebuffed an intense campaign by the White House and earlier warnings from Turkey’s government that such a vote would gravely strain relations with the United States.
In Washington, the Bush administration tried to ease the hard feelings between the countries, and vowed to try to defeat the resolution on Capitol Hill.
“One of the reasons we opposed the resolution in the House yesterday is that the president has expressed on behalf of the American people our horror at the tragedy of 1915,” said Dana Perino, President Bush’s chief spokeswoman. “But at the same time, we have national security concerns, and many of our troops and supplies go through Turkey. They are a very important ally in the war on terror, and we are going to continue to try to work with them. And we hope that the House does not put forward a full vote.”
Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the House would definitely take up the measure. “I said if it comes out of committee, it will go to the floor,” she told reporters. “Now it has come out of committee, and it will go to the floor.”
In Turkey, there was widespread expectation that the House committee vote and any further steps would damage relations between the countries.
Turkish officials and lawmakers warned that if the resolution were approved by the full House, they would reconsider supporting the American war effort in Iraq, which includes permission to ship essential supplies through Turkey from a major air base at Incirlik, in southern Turkey.
Turkey’s prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, refused to say what effect the resolution might have on American access to the base, but he did not exclude the possibility of a policy change. “This step is contrary to the U.S. interests,” he said on Thursday, “and is an unfortunate decision taken by those who cannot acknowledge Turkey’s position.”
Already the top Turkish naval commander, Adm. Metin Atac, canceled a trip to the United States for a conference after Wednesday’s vote, an American Embassy official confirmed. Admiral Atac’s office did not specify any reasons for the cancellation.
For his part, Ross Wilson, the United States ambassador to Turkey, also tried to calm relations, issuing a statement on Thursday saying that the partnership between Turkey and the United States was strong and would remain so. He added that he, President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice regretted the committee decision.
He was nonetheless later summoned to the Foreign Ministry in Ankara, the capital, to be briefed on Turkey’s disappointment.
“We had a meeting with Mr. Wilson during which we expressed our concerns about the developments,” said a spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry. “We drew attention to bad reflections on our bilateral relations and kindly requested his assistance in preventing the passage of the bill.”
The House decision prompted reaction on the streets of Ankara and Istanbul. The youth branch of the extreme-leftist Workers’ Party laid a black wreath at the United States Embassy and spray-painted the Turkish flag onto an embassy wall.
A total of 1.5 million Armenians were killed in the Armenian genocide, which began in 1915 as part of a systematic campaign by the fraying Ottoman Empire to drive Armenians out of eastern Turkey. Turks have vehemently denied the genocide designation, while acknowledging that hundreds of thousands of Armenians died. They contend that the deaths resulted from the war that ended with the creation of modern Turkey in 1923.
Identifying Armenian killings as genocide is considered an insult against Turkish identity, a crime under Article 301 of the Turkish penal code.
In an Istanbul court on Thursday, Sarkis Seropyan and Arat Dink, the brother of Hrant Dink, the newspaper editor who was killed by a 17-year-old gunman in January, received suspended jail sentences for one year for violating that law. They reprinted other newspaper accounts of Hrant Dink’s statement saying that Armenians suffered genocide at the hands of the Ottoman Army in the 1910s, their lawyer, Fethiye Cetin, said.
Not only writers of Armenian origin, but also the Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk have been charged under the same law, although his case was dropped under heavy international pressure.
A State Department spokesman, Tom Casey, said that United States diplomats were reaching out to their Turkish counterparts to express not only their opposition to the resolution but “our commitment with Congress on this to see that the full House, in fact, votes to defeat this resolution.”
Mr. Casey said that State Department and White House officials would try to persuade “various members” of the House on how to vote.
Ms. Pelosi said that she did not have a date in mind for bringing the issue to the floor, but that it would be brought up this session, which is to end around Nov. 16. Whatever happens, she insisted, relations between the United States and Turkey will remain
|
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/12/wo...=1&oref=slogin
and here a guardian article from this morning that outlines the linkages between this resolution and the situation on the northern border of iraq:
Quote:
Turkey ready to face criticism over Iraq
Mark Tran and agencies
Friday October 12, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
Turkey is prepared to pay the diplomatic price for any attack on Kurdish fighters in northern Iraq, the prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said today.
Amid fears that a Turkish incursion would destabilise one of the few relatively peaceful regions in Iraq, Mr Erdogan said the government was becoming impatient after a series of rebel attacks, and was making preparations in case a cross-border strike was deemed necessary.
"There could be pros and cons of such a decision but what is important is our country's interests," Mr Erdogan told reporters in response to a question about the international repercussions of such a decision.
Turkey has lost 30 people in rebel attacks over the past two weeks, sparking military calls for an incursion into northern Iraq, a prospect that disturbs the US, which sees the area as one of the few success stories in the Iraq quagmire.
In the latest reported violence, a Turkish soldier was killed in a mine explosion last night on Mt Gabar, in the south-eastern Sirnak province, where 13 soldiers have been ambushed and killed over the past week.
In an intriguing twist to the latest border tensions, rebels from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers party (PKK) said they were moving back into Turkey from northern Iraq.
The PKK, which says it has an estimated 3,000 men, also warned in a statement that it would target Mr Erdogan's ruling Justice and Development party (AK) and the main opposition Republican People's party (CHP).
Should the PKK move north, it could defuse diplomatic tension by obviating the need for any cross-border raid. But it would make the rebels more vulnerable to Turkish military action.
Mr Erdogan's government has decided to seek approval from parliament next week for a major military operation in northern Iraq. Speaking outside a mosque in Istanbul after Friday prayers, Mr Erdogan said he wanted to secure parliament's approval now to avoid delay in future should a cross-border operation be decided upon.
The PKK, much weakened since its heyday in the 1990s, has called several ceasefires over the years, the last one in 2006. But there has been an upsurge in fighting in recent weeks.
Turkey blames the PKK for the deaths of more than 30,000 people since the group launched its armed struggle for a homeland in south-east Turkey in 1984.
The US has urged Turkey to refrain from any action that may jeopardise stability in Kurdish Iraq, but its task has been complicated by congressional moves to recognise as genocide the killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks during the first world war - a charge Turkey vehemently denies.
Turkey recalled its ambassador from the US "for consultations" after a congressional committee approved the non-binding genocide resolution, which is expected to go the full House of Representatives in the next few weeks.
|
http://media.fastclick.net/w/get.med...%2C00.html&d=f
got it?
personally, my initial (and still dominant) response has been "wtf?"
the situation is kinda insane now.
now the bush people opposed the hfc action because they were afraid that it'd get linked to the situation on the northern border--and in this--and i am feel almost dirty saying it--they were right.
but:
a. the ottoman action against its armenian population seems to me to hve been clearly genocidal---but turkey is not the ottoman empire---the ottomans lost in world war 1 (therefore genocide becomes an operative category) while turkey has not lost a war lately (therefore "ethnic cleansing" or some other equally repellent term)--because it seems that genocide is only genocide if the folk who carry it out lost a war (think the us extermination of the native american population--what do you call that?)
but this is equally true, and has been, for a long time.
b. because this resolution passed, turkey withdrew its ambassador from the us...so the americans have for the time being lost their ability t pressure turkey to not do anything
and now turkey is doing the saber rattle thing, invoking bushworld's foundational discourse of "terrorism" to justify military action against the kurds in northern iraq.
this could become very ugly very quickly.
i cant help but think that the hfc was kinda irresponsible to pass this resolution at this particular moment. but even this is not so easy, because i endorse the contents of the resolution.
i am bewildered---beyond that really---by turkey's response, which seems completely out of whack with the situation at hand. but it is also clear that the government of turkey IS this offended AND that they have been sort of waiting for the chance to do something against kurdistan.
this puts the americans in a truly bad position.
what happens if this goes past dick waving?
the americans end up fighting turkey to defend the kurds in a country it invaded?
what do you make of this chaos?