Graphic showing the principal areas where Armenians lived at the time of the massacre in 1915. A diplomatic rift between Turkey and the United States deepened after Ankara recalled its ambassador to Washington over a vote in the US Congress to label the massacre of Armenians by the Ottoman Turks an act of genocide.(AFP/Graphic)

BBC News website readers discuss a US resolution labelling the mass killing of Armenians by Turks in World War I as genocide.

Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan addresses his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) MPs during a meeting at the Turkish parliament in Ankara October 2, 2007. Erdogan said on Friday Ankara was prepared to face up to international criticism if it launched an attack on Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq. (Umit Bektas/Reuters)

Turkish Premier Tells Bush Genocide Bill Would Hurt Ties

by Michael Abramowitz

The prime minister of Turkey telephoned President Bush yesterday to complain about a resolution before Congress describing the killing of 1.5 million Armenians during and after World War I as a "genocide."...

Protesters march during an anti-U.S. demonstration in Istanbul October 11, 2007. NATO member Turkey recalled its ambassador to the United States for consultations on Thursday after a vote in a U.S. congressional committee branded killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks genocide. REUTERS/Osman Orsal

Here is a piece of argument that threatenes Turkey:

Caution, Turkey

by Nikolas K. Gvosdev

Trukey's not reacting well to the House committee vote to bring the Armenian genocide resolution to a vote of the full body. Couple that with rising tensions on Iraq and you don't have a good situation.

But Ankara also needs to be very careful in how it chooses to react. It can express its disappointment and frustration, sure. But making threats against its leading ally could be very counterproductive. It is not wise to throw around talk about leaving NATO--membership in which, after all, is one of Turkey's cornerstone arguments for why it should be considered part of the West.

Turkey is an important country for the U.S., but it is not indispensable. Not having a northern front for Iraq in 2003 was an irritant, but the current problems we face in Iraq are not caused by the fact we didn't have a northern front. Turkish influence isn't that critical for advancing the U.S. agenda in the Arab world nor is Turkey playing a critical role in either helping to broker settlements either for Iraq or Iran........

Cornered Turkey fighting on many fronts

For the first time in many years Turkey is faced with an intense agenda in both the domestic and foreign policy-related arena that is binding the hands of a country seeking to join the European Union. Domestically work is ongoing to shift...

US warns citizens on possible violence in Turkey

The U.S. State Department has alerted its citizens against possible violence that may arise in Turkey if the controversial bill recognizing the 1915-17 killings of Armenians as ''genocide'' is passed by...

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) prepares for a news conference June 2007. An explosive mix of political opportunism, moral crusading and a bitter feud with President George W. Bush is driving Democrats to ignore Turkey's ire and label massacres of Armenians as genocide.(AFP/Getty Images/File/Chip Somodevilla)

Inside the Turkish Psyche: Traumatic Issues Trouble a Nation’s ...

By SABRINA TAVERNISE and SEBNEM ARSU BAGHDAD, Oct. 11 — To an outsider, the Turkish position on the issue of the Armenian genocide might seem confusing. ...

Downward spiral in US ties gains added momentum

Semih İDİZ

Turkey recalls ambassador to US

Turkey recalls its US envoy after a vote by lawmakers labels the 1915-17 Armenian killings as genocide.

Armenians sway US lawmakers

A look at how a vote in the US declaring the killings of Armenians as "genocide" reflects the influence of Armenian-Americans on US policy.

Spiegel on-line: 'The West Needs Turkey as a Reliable Ally'

Tensions between the US and Turkey are growing as Ankara considers attacking PKK bases in northern Iraq and a congressional committee in Washington pushes forward a resolution calling the World War I massacre of Armenians "genocide." German commentators are concerned at the deteriorating relations between the NATO allies.Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday that Ankara was prepared to face up to international criticism if his country launched an attack on Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq. ...

Armenian Genocide Resolution: Let it PASS!

by Murat Altinbasak

............A BEE dies right after stinging! Let the bill pass so that Turkey is finally immunized from this sickening Armenian venom.. and finally able to thrust it's sword into any hornet's nest which begs to be impaled. What better way to ignite some more "unattractive" nationalism?.. you know.. the American equivalent of "patriotic".. a distinction which makes even a crack smoking, tax evading, magnetic-ribbon-covered-SUV driving American look like a hero, but which has somehow evolved into meaning "child molestor" in Turkey.. Maybe then, Armenians will be happy.. satisfied that they've sold their lies to the greatest country in the world. What next? (oops I forgot.. reparations and return of "stolen land") Will they lobby in China and India for recognition? No worries. Nothing in Turkey will change. Turn this Armenian issue inside-out and all you have is a big black hole.. Let's get this over with.. so that Armenians can turn off the taps.. stop the millions of dollars from being wasted.. Maybe all of the excess propaganda funding can be diverted to where it's really been needed for a long time: their HOMELAND! Sadly, the typical Armenian diasapora doesn't give a squirt of piss about what's going on back "home".. they don't even go there! Yet all that money would sure do wonders for their puny nation.. Just think what it might be like to have modern plumbing! electricity! telephones! Food on the table that DOESN'T consist of dog meat! Build some schools! Feed Armenia!

Yusuf Kanli: The 'genocide bill' and Turkey's red lines

Turkey's red lines are turning pink and even disappearing. The United States is totally ignoring all Turkish red lines, be they about northern Iraq, related to its war against terrorism or to the national pride of the country, like the Armenian genocide claims, or the Suleymaniyah hood incident. Turks are fed up. Turks have started to question what kind of an allied relationship this country has with the United States that Washington is so ignorant of the sensitivities of Turkey. It's rather odd. When it comes to the U.S. Congress, the American administration is telling Ankara that despite its opposition to such developments it just cannot control the legislature adopting resolutions annoyin..

Who to blame for the 'genocide' resolution? Armenians or Americans?

Vural CENGİZ

The three monkeys in Turkish-American relations

C. Cem OĞUZ

US-Turkey rift over Armenians

A vote in the US about the 1915 mass killings in Armenia is threatening a delicate diplomatic relationship.

Missing person notices bring Armenian families together

Turkey is preparing for an important event that symbolizes Turkish-Armenian solidarity even as the Foreign Affairs Committee of the U.S. Congress votes to pass a bill recognizing the so-...

Putting ourselves in the other man’s shoes on the ‘Armenian question’ by MEHMET ÖĞÜTÇÜ

What a fascinating but equally unrewarding subject to write on the “Armenian question” is. Everything you say will touch the sensitive nerves and deep-seated emotions of both the Turks and the Armenians.

Turkey fears send oil to record high

Crude oil prices surged to a fresh high of $84 a barrel, on concerns that Turkey might next week launch an invasion of northern Iraq in an attempt to crush Kurdish guerrillas it accuses of attacking Turkish targets

Times on Line: Turkish tanks ready to roll into Iraq in hunt for Kurdish terrorist hideouts - by Suna Erdem

Turkish Prime Minister threatens attack against Kurds

by David Francis

STR/AFP/Getty Images

In July, former U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Morton Abramowitz warned in a Web exclusive for FP that the dispute between Kurdistan in northern Iraq and Turkey could "explode in violence" if the United States didn't act to diffuse it. The conflict between the Kurds and Turkey, he argued, would destabilize northern Iraq and further strain relations between Washington and Ankara....

PKK: the AKP's 'Achilles Heel'…

Cengiz ÇANDAR

Why the PKK is trying to provoke a war

Mustafa AKYOL

Yusuf Kanli: Authorization and its meaning...

Our sources in the government and in the security apparatus of the country now stress that the time has come for action and from now on, rather than in newspaper headlines or discussions in the media, decisions will be taken behind closed doors. Diplomacy will be given a chance, and if deemed necessary, stringent and “as strong and deep as required” anti-terror operations will be undertaken. The public will be informed of only the results, not how they developed... .For the first time since the April 12 statement of Chief of General Staff General Yaşar Büyükanıt that he believed there was need for a cross-border operation and he was confident that such an operation would produce very go

Graphic shows Turkey?s military personnel by divisions and amount of select land arsenal

A full field press against the PKK

Murat YETKİN

An act of desperation and an enlightened response to recent terrorism

David MERAHN

Pair guilty of 'insulting Turkey'

The son of murdered Turkish writer Hrant Dink is one of two editors convicted of insulting Turkish identity.

Journalists sentenced for violating Article 301

An Istanbul court found two editors at the Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos guilty of insulting “Turkishness” Thursday and sentenced each to a one-year prison term but then...

Court denies immunity to DTP deputy

A Turkish court ruled Thursday that a lawmaker accused of belonging to a terrorist group had no right to claim the judicial immunity extended to elected deputies, the Anatolia news agency

The real ambush set up by the PKK…

Cengiz ÇANDAR

Alevis welcome verdict against religion lessons

The Alevi community has welcomed the arguments in a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on the topic of religion courses in Turkey. The Strasbourg based court announced its detailed

PKK gets more vicious as it fails

Mehmet Ali Birand

Shall we talk about facts?

The first and most bitter fact is that neither noncommissioned officer, Ahmet Sarıoğlu, nor privates, Bayram Güzel, Turgay Salgur, Mehmet Uyar, Seyfi Altuntaş, Mehmet Yıldırım, Mehmet Uçarı, Kasım Aksoy, A. Şükrü Karataş, Emrah Eryılmaz, Sıddık Küçükgöz, Fetullah Selçuk, Mehmet Coşkun, Tahsin Yıldırım and Caner Örengül will be able to embrace their loved ones again as they have fallen on Sunday and Monday, like thousands of other brave sons of this nation, in the struggle against the worst heinous organized crime of the day: Terrorism. The second reality is the ignorance and inaction of the key ally of this country – the United States – regarding this grave problem emanating from a territory...

A Turkish man, carrying a national flag on his shoulders, visits Edirnekapi National Cemetery, where troops killed in the fight against Kurdish rebels are buried, in Istanbul, Turkey, Friday, Oct. 12, 2007. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Turkey would not be deterred by the possible diplomatic consequences if it decides to stage a cross-border offensive into Iraq against Kurdish rebels. (AP Photo/Serkan Senturk)

An open call to EU Ambassadors

The 1990s was a decade in which both terrorist organization Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and the Turkish state that fought them showed their ugliest faces. Fighting for autonomy in

The Kurdish question and law

Reforms Turkey has to introduce within the context of its EU membership bid also coincide with the demands of society.

Question on terrorism: What is going on?

The cries of the mothers turned into a grief that gripped all of Turkey, which strongly feels the impact of terror most because of the 15 soldiers martyred over the past few days.

Is the PKK fighting for its survival?

Just as Turkey was trying to address its real agenda items, such as drafting a new and civilian constitution after the completion of a tiresome process of general and presidential elections, the separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) terrorism has rekindled, killing almost 30 people within two weeks, including both civilians and soldiers in Turkey’s southeast.

Provocation and trap

by SEMİH İDİZ, MİLLİYET

Nowadays fighting terrorism is an “asymmetrical” endeavor; this is what we often hear from experts on the issue.

The motion and the cross-border operation

by BİLAL ÇETİN, VATAN

The government will most probably pass the motion regarding a cross-border operation into Iraq in Parliament following the Ramadan festival.

The most profitable company: PKK

by AHMET KEKEÇ, STAR

The fact that the arms the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) owns are US-made, fleeing terrorists are sheltered in northern Iraq and the US is distancing itself from its allies in endeavoring to fight terrorism, even deciding to penalize them (via the Armenian genocide resolution), reinforces the negative perception about the US because the US does not battle terrorism.

Reason and operation

by SOLİ ÖZEL, SABAH

Roaring a lot about outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) terrorism, Turkey is face-to-face with pressure to take action following the murder of the most recent 13 martyrs -- but this does not necessarily mean a cross-border operation.

Is conducting a cross-border operation a real solution?

Amid mounting frustration and impatience among the public over Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) terrorism and pressure from the military and the opposition, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan gave the green light to the army for a cross-border operation into northern Iraq to crack down on PKK militants based there.

Terrorism and the DTP

by TAHA AKYOL, MİLLİYET

I have noticed that pro-Kurdish DTP deputies have been showing sensitivity to the criticism aimed at them, making explanations like, “We are not as you introduce us,” or describing the soldiers martyred recently as “martyrs, our children.”

Who makes use of the PKK?

by NASUHİ GÜNGÖR, STAR

Looking from two different perspectives at the increased violence enacted by terrorists will help. First is the progress of the debates on the constitution, occurring subsequent to the July 22 elections in the direction of common sense, despite struggles to deviate from it.

Not cross-border but transatlantic operation

by A. TURAN ALKAN, ZAMAN

To be honest, it is not possible to deter the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) terrorism via military means.

Comments

Call it what it was, a genocide. Only Turkey can grow from this.

Posted by: John | October 13, 2007 05:23 AM

What is it called when The Ottoman Empire is "systematically" dismembered and nearly wiped off the map? Remember Sevres? Re-arrange the letters to spell "severs".. Let me refresh your memory:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:TreatyOfSevres_%28corrected%29.PNG

Posted by: Murat | October 13, 2007 07:47 PM

Some of these articles are chilling. Altinbasak is particularly strange. It is an example of the false history we have been brought up with. The Armenian diaspora's "home" is not the state of Armenia, it is areas in Turkey. They are exactly looking back to their home and having their home understand an injustice.

Our "leaders" telling us the genocide is a myth and seeking to make us think it is about us are mis characterizing what is going on. If don't think they have read the resolution. Almost nothing in the effort by the Armenians has a thing to do with today. That which does have to do with today is about one issue -- the campaign of denial.

We have just convicted Kinks son for speaking of it. Our government doesn't care how this makes us look. It doesn't care that we have brought up a couple of generations on myth substituted for history.

forget the U.S. Congress -- it is time for us to acknowledge this terrible genocide.

Posted by: Asil | October 13, 2007 10:10 PM

As US breaks Turkish hearts, now warns citizens on possible violence in Turkey...