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Air Force One Press Gaggle by Tony Fratto 10/15/07 (Armenian Genocide Resolution)
— Monday, October 15, 2007 — Q On the Armenian genocide resolution, yesterday Speaker Pelosi said she has not heard -- has not received a telephone call from the President. Will he be calling her? MR. FRATTO: I don't have -- I don't know anything about plans for a phone call. But there should be no question of the President's views on this issue and the damage that this resolution can do to our U.S. foreign policy interests. This isn't just a view that's expressed by the administration; this is a view that's been expressed by at least, I believe eight former Secretaries of State on a bipartisan basis, a number of former Defense Secretaries, by our Turkish allies, by independent experts, that this is an important time for U.S.-Turkish relations, and we would strongly encourage the Speaker not to bring this to a vote, and should it come to a vote, we will strongly encourage members not to support it. This is not the best way to deal with this issue. It is, admittedly, a tragic historical event, which has been well documented, but there are better ways to deal with this issue than -- the most important outcome that I think everyone would like to see are improved Turkish and Armenian relations. And so we encourage the Turks and Armenian authorities to resolve this issue between themselves, and not for the U.S. House of Representatives to insert itself and make this -- make the prospects for resolving the issue more difficult. We should be trying to make it less difficult. Air Force One | Armenia | Genocide | Iraq | Middle East Labels: Air Force One, Armenia, Genocide, Iraq, Middle East, Press Gaggle, Resolutions, Tony Fratto, Turkey, White House Press Corps
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 8:41 PM  White House Press Briefing by Dana Perino 10/10/07 (Armenian Genocide Resolution) — Wednesday, October 10, 2007 — Q The President said today that the Armenia genocide resolution was not the right response to the historic mass killings. What is the -- what does he consider to be the correct response? MS. PERINO: One thing the President has done every year since he got here is issue a presidential message. This year it was on April 24, 2007. And one of the things the President said in it -- and I quote -- is that "I join my fellow Americans and Armenian people around the world in commemorating this tragedy and honoring the memory of the innocent lives that were taken. The world must never forget this painful chapter of its history." The statement is much longer than that, but the President believes that that is the way to deal with this historic tragic situation. Q What does he think, in real terms, the consequences of passing the resolution would be? MS. PERINO: Well, I think you also heard from Secretary -- the President and Secretary Rice and Secretary Gates heard from General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker and Admiral Fallon this morning and they got an update on it. We've obviously heard from the Turkish government over time that they do not want to see this resolution passed in the House of Representatives. It's come up over the years. But also, right now we have 160,000 of our troops in harm's way in Iraq, and Turkey has been a very valuable ally and their strong reaction -- negative reaction -- about this resolution is what caused the President to come out today and ask members of Congress to oppose it. Q What do we think that Turkey will do? MS. PERINO: Well, I think that's a hypothetical and I'm not going to comment on it. I'd refer you to the Turks for any comment that they want to make on it. I just know that Secretary Rice and Secretary Gates felt strongly enough, after hearing from the commanders on the ground, that they needed to go and make a public statement asking Congress to oppose it. Q Is Turkey blackmailing the United States? MS. PERINO: Absolutely not. I think that they've made their position very clear over the years. And the President has also, through presidential messages, made it clear how we feel about the Armenian people, and understand the heartache and frustration that they feel about what happened in 1915. Q Turkey has not shown hesitancy in the past to influence United States' thinking by either allowing troops to come through or there's landing rights issues. There's lots of ways in which they can influence. So if the war on terror -- they know their role in the United States war on terror, and they're saying, don't do this, what else are you supposed to make of it? MS. PERINO: Well, I think that they are making their points clear, just like we make our points clear to other governments, as well. And we do believe that the Turks and the Armenians should have a discussion and work this out amongst themselves. And they are having discussions. We've encouraged those and I think that's the -- where it is best dealt with. The United States House of Representatives has a lot of business before it, including passing any of our -- or getting conferees appointed to the appropriations bills so that we can actually get the budget underway. So there's a lot of work that they could be doing rather than this. Q One last follow. In terms of understanding sort of the power of the word "genocide," what is the biggest problem the Turks have communicated that they have an issue with it being called a genocide as opposed to a tragedy? MS. PERINO: I'll have to refer you to this Turkish government for that. I don't -- I'm not going to speak for them. Armenia | Dana Perino | Genocide | Press Briefing | Resolutions | Turkey | White House Press Corps Labels: Armenia, Dana Perino, Genocide, Press Briefing, Resolutions, Turkey, White House Press Corps
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 6:30 PM
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