WASHINGTON, Oct. 15 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President George
W. Bush has no plan to call the House Speaker to cancel a vote on a resolution
branding the killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks between 1915 and 1917 a
genocide, a White House spokesman said on Monday.
"There should be no question of the president's views
on this issue and the damage that this resolution could do to U.S. foreign
policy interests," White House deputy press secretary Tony Fratto told reporters
aboard Air Force One.
But President Bush has no plan to urge Democratic
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to drop the voting on the resolution, Fratto said.
The nonbinding resolution, which was approved by the
House Foreign Affairs Committee last week, is expected to be voted by the whole
House soon.
Armenians say more than 1.5 million Armenians were
killed in a systematic genocide in the hands of the Ottomans during World War I,
before modern Turkey was born in 1923. But Turkey insists the Armenians were
victims of widespread chaos and governmental breakdown as the 600 year-old
empire collapsed in the years before1923.
Turkey condemned Thursday the U.S. House's "genocide"
bill and recalled its ambassador to Washington back to Turkey for consultation
over the matter, a sign of exasperated tension between the United State and
Turkey over the issue.
The U.S. government expressed hope for Turkish
ambassador's return "to work to maintain strong U.S.-Turkish relations."
Meanwhile, the White House has been intensely lobbying lawmakers to reject the
resolution, which Bush believes would harm relations with Turkey, especially the
partnership in the anti-terror war.
Fratto said the White House does not want Pelosi to
bring it to the floor but if it comes to a vote, "we will strongly encourage
members not to support it."
