Turkey upset by US decision
Updated on 10 October 2007
An argument over the deaths of 1,500,000 Armenians in 1915 has sparked a crisis between Turkey and America.
Turkey is furious about a resolution in Congress to redefine the tragedy as genocide and has warned of serious consequences if it is passed.
President Bush has pleaded with Congress to drop the resolution, and the White House urged Turkey not to intervene against Kurdish rebels in Northern Iraq.
The motion has huge support in the House and Senate, even Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama have signed on, but it is rare for one of these non-binding resolutions to attract such high level criticism and not just from the White House.
All eight living former Secretaries of State have signed a letter warning it would endanger national security.
The Turkish government is spending hundreds of thoudands of dollars lobbying Congress. All over a resolution that wouldn't actually do anything, except maybe make Congress feel better while they come under fire for not doing more to try to end the war in Iraq.
To fight that war US troops need mine-resistant vehicles, 95 per cent of them get into Iraq by passing through Turkey. So does 70 per cent of all goods used by the American armed forces.
Trials of high-profile Turkish authors like Orhan Pamuk for writing about genocide, attracted international critcism and threatened Turkey's ambiton to join the European Union.
But now, with Turkish troops on the Iraqi border, and America dependent on Turkish support, they are in a much stronger position to demand that America avoids what they say would be a historic mistake.
