The Turkish president has denounced a vote by a committee of the US Congress recognizing as genocide the 1915 mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks. President Abdullah Gul said the decision was unacceptable and had no validity for Turkey, which has always denied any genocide took place.The genocide bill passed in the House Foreign Affairs Committee by 27 votes to 21 - the first step towards holding a vote in the House of Representatives. Turkey could now limit its cooperation with the US in the war on terror and provision of military bases near Iraq.
Note EU-Digest: The powerful and financially strong Armenian lobby has once again turned political opinion in their favor on an unproven issue which happened during the Ottoman Empire. If every country who believed they experienced a genocide in their past history started claiming recognition of these crimes, we would find ourselves in an endless process of futile discussions. Why isn't anyone speaking of the French massacres in Algeria, or those of the Dutch in Indonesia, the British in India, the Japanese in China, and the US extermination of the Indians. The Armenians, unfortunately, have turned this issue into an industry. It's big bucks and politicians are being bought. Without it, no one would even know that Armenia (population 1.5 million) existed. Isn't it time to drop this issue and let the Armenians and Turks work it out among themselves?
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