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Last Updated: Wednesday, 10 October 2007, 18:31 GMT 19:31 UK
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Bush warns against Armenia bill

Armenian refugee mother and child (picture taken 1915-16 by German photographer Armin Wegner; reproduced here by permission of the Armenian National Institute)
A German soldier took photos of Armenian deportees at the time

George W Bush
President George W Bush has urged US legislators not to pass a resolution declaring the killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks to be genocide.

"This resolution is not the right response to these historic mass killings," he said hours before a vote by the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Such a move, already taken by France's parliament, would do "great harm" to US relations with Turkey, Mr Bush added.

Turkey admits many Armenians died in WWI but denies any genocidal campaign.

It is highly unusual for the White House to make such a dramatic last-minute intervention in Congressional business, the BBC's Justin Webb reports from Washington.

With the opposition Democrats now in charge in Congress, they could force a vote, dealing a potentially grave blow to the Bush administration's efforts to keep Turkey on side, our correspondent adds.

Turkish indignation

Speaking before Mr Bush, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the passing of the resolution would be "very problematic" for US policy in the Middle East.

Turkish students protest about Kurdish attacks in Istanbul
Turkey has seen angry rallies demanding action in Iraq

It could, she added, destabilise US efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan because Turkey is a main hub for US military operations in the region.

Even if it passes and is then adopted by the House, the bill will not be binding.

But the BBC's Sarah Rainsford, in Istanbul, says that this will have little impact on the reaction in Turkey.

Ankara has pulled out all the stops to prevent the genocide resolution reaching Congress for a vote, she adds.

Politicians have travelled to Washington to lobby lawmakers, while the country's prime minister and president have both contacted Mr Bush.

Turkish President Abdullah Gul warned of "serious problems that will emerge in bilateral relations if the bill is adopted".

Border tensions

All this comes on top of mounting anger that the US is not doing enough to counter the Kurdish separatist PKK group, which mounts deadly attacks on Turkey from inside Iraq, our correspondent says.

The Turkish prime minister said the government was preparing a motion seeking approval to launch military action in Iraq, which might go before parliament as soon as Thursday.

Some Turkish analysts believe the passing of the US resolution would make it harder for the Turkish government to resist public pressure to cross the border.

However, the US warned Turkey not to pursue Kurdish rebels into northern Iraq.

"We do not think it would be the best place for troops to go into Iraq from Turkey at this time," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.

Armenian pressure

Armenia alleges that up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed in an organised campaign to force them out of what is now eastern Turkey in 1915-17.

That is strongly denied by Turkey, which says that large numbers of both Turks and Armenians were killed in the chaos surrounding World War I and the collapse of the Ottoman Empire when Armenians rose up.

It is still extremely difficult to establish a set of undisputed facts about what happened in eastern Anatolia almost a century ago, the BBC's regional analyst Pam O'Toole says.

But the issue has been kept alive by the powerful Armenian diaspora.

Last year, the lower house of the French parliament declared the killings a genocide.

Ankara argues that there were massacres by both sides at the time but completely rejects the allegation that there was a state policy to kill Armenians.

Some Turks fear if those events are recognised as genocide, that could open the door to claims for compensation or even territory, our analyst says.