STATEMENTS BY U.S. OFFICIALS

Administration Opposes Congressional Armenian Resolution

Dan Fried, Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs

Department of State, Washington, DC
October 5, 2007

QUESTION: There's a vote planned, as you know, for next week in the Congress on the Armenian genocide resolution. All indications are that that will make it through committee. What will the U.S. -- what will the Administration be saying to Turkey in the aftermath?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY FRIED: The Administration opposes House Resolution 106. And we think it would do grave harm, both to U.S.-Turkish relations and to U.S. interests, including damage to -- it would hurt our forces deployed in Iraq, which rely on passage through Turkey. It would do far greater harm than good. It would do nothing to advance Turkish-Armenian reconciliation.

But more to the point, it is not simply this Administration which opposes this bill, but all former living Secretaries of State have written to Speaker Pelosi in opposition, including: Madeleine Albright, Warren Christopher, Colin Powell, Henry Kissinger, James Baker, Alexander Haig, George Shultz, Larry Eagleburger. They have all expressed the view that this resolution could, and I quote, "endanger our national security interests in the region, including the safety of our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan ."

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 “We are writing to express concern that H. Res. 106 could soon be put to a vote.  Passage of the resolution would harm our foreign policy objectives to promote reconciliation between Turkey and Armenia ….”

“...We do not minimize or deny the enormous significance of the horrible tragedy suffered by ethnic Armenians from 1915 to 1923.  During our tenures as Secretaries of State, we each supported Presidential statements recognizing the mass killings and forced exile of Armenians...” 

“It is our view that passage of this resolution could quickly extend beyond symbolic significance.”

              

Alexander M. Haig, Jr.             Henry A. Kissinger

George P. Shultz                              James A. Baker III                                    

       

Lawrence S. Eagleburger                Warren Christopher                 

              

Madeleine K. Albright                Colin L. Powell  

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ASSISTANT SECRETARY FRIED: Now, no one, neither the former secretaries nor the Administration denies that a terrible and inexcusable tragedy of mass killings and forced exile befell innocent Armenians in the last years of the Ottoman Empire in 1915 and after. Those are historical facts. Up to a million and a half people were killed or forced into exile. The United States has recognized this. President Bush, like President Clinton before him, has formally recognized it in annual statements on Armenian Remembrance Day on April 24th. So the Administration does not deny anything. We do not deny anything. But we do not believe that this bill would advance either the cause of historical truth or Turkish-Armenian reconciliation or the interests of the United States and we oppose it.

QUESTION: That statement seems to presume that Turkey will retaliate by restricting some sort of access to Iraq by saying that this would harm U.S. troops. Do you presume that?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY FRIED: I don't want to discuss a possible Turkish reaction to a bill that I hope doesn't pass, but it is true that the Turkish reaction would be extremely strong. It has been strong when such resolutions have passed before and we have to be mindful of how much we depend and how much our troops and the Iraqi economy depends on shipments from and through Turkey .