Turkish Warning: "Never The Same Again"

General Says U.S.-Turkey Relations Will Be Damaged By Armenian Genocide Bill

(AP)  Turkey's top general has warned that military ties with the U.S. will be irreversibly damaged if Congress passes a resolution that labels the World War I-era killings of Armenians a genocide, a report said Sunday.

Gen. Yasar Buyukanit told the daily Milliyet newspaper that a congressional committee's approval of the measure had already strained ties between the two countries.

"If this resolution passed in the committee passes the House as well, our military ties with the U.S. will never be the same again," Buyukanit was quoted as saying by Milliyet.

Turkey, which is a major cargo hub for U.S. and allied military forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, has recalled its ambassador to Washington for consultations and warned that there might be a cut in the logistical support to the U.S. over the issue.

About 70 percent of U.S. air cargo headed for Iraq goes through Turkey as does about one-third of the fuel used by the U.S. military there. U.S. bases also get water and other supplies carried in overland by Turkish truckers who cross into Iraq's northern Kurdish region.

In addition, C-17 cargo planes fly military supplies to U.S. soldiers in remote areas of Iraq from Turkey's Incirlik air base, avoiding the use of Iraqi roads vulnerable to bomb attacks. U.S. officials say the arrangement helps reduce American casualties.

"I'm the military chief, I deal with security issues. I'm not a politician," Buyukanit was quoted as saying by Milliyet. "In this regard, the U.S. shot its own foot."

Despite the general's strong words and the protest in recalling its ambassador, it is not clear just how far Turkey can go in expressing its dismay to Washington.

Turkey suspended its military ties with France last year after the French parliament's lower house adopted a bill that that would have made it a crime to deny that the Armenian killings constituted a genocide.

But there is more at stake for NATO's only Muslim member when it comes to Turkey-U.S. relations. The Turkish military, and especially the air force, is heavily dependent on the American defense industry, experts say.

Still, Turkey has limited the activities of U.S. troops in Turkey in the past, noted the country's former permanent representative to NATO, Onur Oymen.

When Washington imposed an arms embargo against Ankara in 1975 due to a dispute over Cyprus, Turkey ended all its logistical support to U.S. troops and sharing of intelligence until the embargo was lifted, Oymen said.

U.S. President George W. Bush has said the resolution is the wrong response to the Armenian deaths, and administration officials have warned of the potential damage to relations with Turkey and the harm that could be done to America's war effort in Iraq.

But Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the measure's timing was important "because many of the survivors are very old."

"It is a statement made by 23 other countries. We would be the 24th country to make this statement. Genocide still exists, and we saw it in Rwanda; we see it now in Darfur," she told ABC television's "This Week" program in an interview broadcast Sunday.

Republican lawmaker John Boehner said the measure was "irresponsible."

"Listen, there's no question that the suffering of the Armenian people some 90 years ago was extreme. But what happened 90 years ago ought to be a subject for historians to sort out, not politicians here in Washington," he told "Fox News Sunday."

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Saturday "urged restraint" from Turkey and sent two high-ranking officials to Ankara in an apparent attempt to ease fury over the measure, which could be voted on by the House of Representatives by the end of the year.

At issue in the resolution is the killing of up to 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman Turks. Many international historians contend the World War I-era deaths amounted to genocide, but Turkey says the mass killings and deportations were not systematic and that many Turkish Muslims died in the chaos of war.

[iceman_1960]

"Stop making excuses for the idiot leaders of your Democrat Party. This is a royal screw-up on their part of huge proportions. It"s yet another attempt to cause a defeat in Iraq, your people have zero ethical values they are just cretins."
- Posted by jowand at 12:53 PM : Oct 15, 2007

You"re a hypocrite.

Constantly talking about things like the gassing of the Kurds and the deaths of millions in Southeast Asia, when you want to justify your war-mongering.

But when something like the slaughter of the Armenians gets in the way, then it"s just "Let bygones be bygones."

[radiob-2009]

Turkey''s "beef" now makes "Rice" and "Ottoman" imports illegal.

[jowand]

To Mr. Boehner, and the Bush junta:

We are still talking about the Holocaust, and we will be talking about it for the next seventy-seven generations, and beyond.
I don''''t hear any complaints from Germany. Do you?

Why the double-standard?




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted by nikosk1 at 09:28 AM : Oct 15, 2007

Timing is everything you bone-head, Pelosi and company think it is perfect timing.

[jowand]

"In August 1998 General Ismail Hakki Karadayi comes to the end of his term as chief of staff of Turkey''''s armed forces. His five years in this post have been marked by the increasing role played by military officers in all aspects of Turkey%u2019s political life, from the Kurdish question to relations with Greece and the ongoing struggle against the Islamists. There has also been a state-sponsored growth of mafia activities related to the drugs trade and many murders of opposition politicians and civil rights campaigners."

[Same source]


Posted by Iceman_1960 at 09:45 AM : Oct 15, 2007

Stop making excuses for the idiot leaders of your Democrat Party. This is a royal screw-up on their part of huge proportions. It''s yet another attempt to cause a defeat in Iraq, your people have zero ethical values they are just cretins.

[bizzzz-2009]

Turkish Warning: "Never The Same Again"
General Says U.S.-Turkey Relations Will Be Damaged By Armenian Genocide Bill

THANKS NANCY. I HOPE WRECKING OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH TURKEY WAS WORTH WHAT EVER YOU WERE TRYING TO PROVE.

[iceman_1960]

"In August 1998 General Ismail Hakki Karadayi comes to the end of his term as chief of staff of Turkey''s armed forces. His five years in this post have been marked by the increasing role played by military officers in all aspects of Turkey%u2019s political life, from the Kurdish question to relations with Greece and the ongoing struggle against the Islamists. There has also been a state-sponsored growth of mafia activities related to the drugs trade and many murders of opposition politicians and civil rights campaigners."

[Same source]

[iceman_1960]

Our wonderful ally Turkey...

"In Spain, the 28 murders committed by the GAL have become a matter of concern at the highest government level, whereas in Turkey, which likes to present itself as a law-abiding state and which is seeking admission to the European Union, not one single perpetrator of more than 4,500 unsolved murders carried out since 1991 - the so-called ''faili mesul cinayetleri'' - has thus far been arrested. In my country, the murderers are on the streets and the intellectuals are behind bars."

In a report published on 28 January 1997, the Turkish government''s chief inspector described how, in the juridical no-man''s land of Kurdish south-eastern Turkey, the army''s "special war" units were not just killing with impunity, but had also become involved in protection rackets, blackmail, rape and drug trafficking."

Source:

http://mondediplo.com/1998/07/05turkey

[iceman_1960]

"Our Thanksgiving is shot if this "strike" continues."
- Posted by radiob at 09:21 AM : Oct 15, 2007

Yours maybe, but not mine.

My tofu turkeys are home grown and humanely slaughtered.

[radiob-2009]

Do not let it "ruffle your feathers"

[iceman_1960]

"To the Turks, everything is "shurla burla", which means "like this, like that". You never know what will happen. All foreigners are "ayip", they''re considered dirty. So is h*omosexuality, it''s a big crime here, but most of them do it every chance they get. There are about thousand things that are "ayip", for instance, you can stab or shoot somebody below the waist but not above because that''s intent to kill. So everyone runs around stabbing everyone else in the ***. That''s what they call Turkish revenge. I know it must all sound crazy to you, but this place is crazy." - a character in the 1978 film "Midnight Express"

[radiob-2009]

Our Thanksgiving is shot if this "strike" continues.

[radiob-2009]

266.5 million Turkeys each year that now will not be willing getting in the oven.

[iceman_1960]

If relations are strained with Turkey, America''s heroin supply could be impaired.

Many Americans will be forced to quit "cold turkey" if that happens.

The silly Congressmen didn''t even consider this danger, did they.



"IN THE SHADOW OF GENERALS, HIRED KILLERS AND DRUG TRAFFICKERS: Turkey%u2019s pivotal role in the international drug trade"

http://mondediplo.com/1998/07/05turkey

[radiob-2009]

Oops a great furrin policy.

[iceman_1960]

Sorry, I didn''t couch that properly...

I"m so angry about this issue, I just threw OUT my expensive ottoman.

[iceman_1960]

I"m so angry about this issue, I just threw my expensive ottoman.

[iceman_1960]

(talk turkey,

Informal.

to talk frankly; mean business.)

[iceman_1960]

It"s about time our elected representatives started talking Turkey.

[iceman_1960]

"The state department also banned exports of "Rice" to Turkey."
- Posted by radiob at 08:40 AM : Oct 15, 2007

But Rice is very popular when she appears in the Japanese Diet.

[Diet = Parliament]

[radiob-2009]

The state department also banned exports of "Rice" to Turkey.