Turks Rattle the Sabre

By SUZAN FRASER, Associated Press Writer
Tue Oct 9, 4:53 PM ET
ANKARA, Turkey - Turkey's president warned the U.S. government Tuesday that their longtime ties will be harmed if Congress passes a resolution putting the genocide label on the mass killings of ethnic Armenians in Ottoman Turk lands during World War I.

President Abdullah Gul said in a letter there would be "serious troubles" if Congress adopted the measure, which is expected to be considered Wednesday by the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Armenians, backed by many historians, contend hundreds of thousands of Armenians died in an organized genocide. Turks say the killings came amid widespread chaos and governmental breakdown as the 600-year-old Ottoman Empire collapsed in the years before modern Turkey was born in 1923.

In recent years, Armenians have campaigned for international recognition of the killings as genocide, and France is among countries that officially adopted that view. Turkey, a member of NATO along with France, broke military ties with the French government after that.

Gul's complaint to President Bush came as the Turkish governing party decided to ask for parliamentary approval for a military attack into northern Iraq, seeking to wipe out bases used by guerrillas of a Turkish Kurd separatist movement.

U.S. officials fear an incursion into Iraq's Kurdish region could destabilize one of the few areas in the country that have remained relatively peaceful and have urged the Turkish government against sending troops across the border.

The Bush administration is pressing Congress to reject the Armenian resolution, which would have no binding effect on U.S. foreign policy. But its supporters appear to have enough votes to win approval from the full House.

Some analysts said passage could break the last constraints holding the Turkish government back from striking into Iraq, despite the rising anger of Turks over recent attacks by rebels in largely Kurdish southeastern Turkey.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071009/ap_on_re_mi_ea/turkey_us_genocide

Ok Now a few questions, feel free to expand on your arguments
1.Why would it be in the US governments best interest to pass this confrontational resolution, which is totally non-binding, based on something that the Ottoman empire did 90 years ago?

2.Why cant the world community just let the Kurds have thier own country?

3.Do you really think the Turks would cross the border to attack Kurdish Iraq?

4.Would the Turks really eject US military forces on bases?

5. Is Turkey that important of an ally?

Here are my answers,
1. Totally unwise. It makes no sense and is pointless. Turkey more or less ended its relations with France over such a stance they took.
2. I think they should. Nobody seems to want them on thier land, they still inhabit the region they have historically. Just give them thier homeland and things will be much more peaceful.
3. It would be a horribly dumb thing to do on thier part, to launch those sort of attacks.
4. Probably, and that would be a serious blow to operations in Iraq.
5. Well I am not sure, it is convenient they are somewhat of a European country but yet Islamic. Geographically, they have a critical location. I dont think we could do without whatever trade goods we share.