Turkey, Ankara / corr Trend A. Alasgarov, E. Huseyov / The Armenian Patriarch of Turkey is against the adoption of a resolution by the US Congress Committee to recognize the so-called 'Armenian genocide' as though committed by the Ottoman Empire at the beginning of the 20th century. "We are against this bill, because it hurts оur relations," Mespon Mutafian, Patriarch of Armenian Church in Turkey, said in Ankara.
On 11 October, the US Congress Committee on Foreign Affairs adopted a resolution on recognition of the so-called 'Armenian genocide'. The document says that between 1915 and 1923 the Ottoman Empire committed genocide against Armenians.
The current Bush Administration, like the previous, is against such interpretation of events which happened at the beginning of the 20th century and consider that the adoption of the document will seriously damage its strategic relations with Turkey.
Recently, Mutafian met in Ankara with Keksan Toptan, the Chairman of the Turkish Parliament and the newly elected Turkish President Abdullah Gul, as well as employees of the US Embassy. The Patriarch congratulated Gul and Toptan with their elections to higher positions. The religious leader of Armenians voiced his negative attitude towards the resolution on the Armenian genocide considered at Congress.
Mutafian regretted that a proposal by Turkish Premier Rejeb Tayyip Erdogan on the establishment of a joint Turkish-Armenian commission comprised of historians did not find support, Ajanpress reported.
On 17 October, as a result of strict protests of the Turkish Government, as well as condemnation of the resolution at the White House, one of the major initiators of the document, the speaker of the US Congress of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, voiced her uncertainty in the adoption of the resolution calling for the recognition of the 'Armenian genocide'. She said it after several members of the Congress refused to support the resolution citing threatening to US-Turkish relations as their reason for concern.
A while ago, Turkish Premier Erdogan called on the White House to impede the adoption of the resolution. Numerous actions were held in the different cities of the United States, as well as in Turkey to protest the adoption of the document.
Earlier, the Bush Administration stressed its intention to take steps to block the anti-Turkish resolution. Afterwards, twenty-one US congressmen refused to support Resolution 106.