US military praises Turkish role in Afghanistan, Iraq

Two senior United States generals praised Wednesday Turkey’s military assistance in Iraq and Afghanistan while hinting at fears the cooperation could be scaled back with a potential U.S. House vote on Armenian genocide claims.

Gen. David Petraeus, commander of the U.S. Central Command and responsible for Afghanistan and Iraq, and Gen. Duncan McNabb, commander of the U.S. Air Force's Transportation Command, spoke at a hearing of the House Armed Services Committee on their forces' defense authorization budget requests for next year.

Vic Snyder, a Democratic representative from Arkansas, asked the two generals to comment on the normalization process between Turkey and Armenia.

During a time when the two countries’ reconciliation process has been showing signs of faltering, a House Foreign Affairs Committee passed a resolution on March 4 calling on Washington to define the World War I-era killings of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire as "genocide."

Turkey has warned that Ankara's cooperation with the U.S. will be adversely affected if the full House endorses the bill.

Petraeus said he did not want to comment directly on Snyder's question, but chose to focus on the importance of Turkey's military collaboration with the U.S. on Afghanistan and Iraq.

"[Turkey has] forces deployed in Afghanistan. In fact, they're operating with considerable skill – [and] very impressively in the Kabul district, which is their area of responsibility there," Petraeus said.

"And then, of course, there is Turkish involvement in a relationship with Iraq which, again, all of us sought to work together, as we did to promote the relationship of Iraq with its other neighbors as well," he said.

McNabb also emphasized the significant role Turkey's southern İncirlik Air Base has played in helping U.S. logistical military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. "İncirlik is a really pivotal base for us, both for the re-supply of Iraq and for the re-supply of Afghanistan."

No deal to stop resolution

Meanwhile, a senior U.S. diplomat signaled that a congressional resolution that would recognize Ottoman era killings of Armenians as “genocide” could go forward despite opposition from the administration of President Barack Obama.

Assistant Secretary of State Philip Gordon told reporters that there is no deal with Democratic congressional leaders to block the resolution, contradicting earlier claims by the State Department.

“Congress is an independent body and they are going to do what they decide to do,” the Associated Press quoted Gordon as saying ahead of speech at the Brookings Institution.

It is not clear whether the resolution’s proponents have sufficient support to pass a prospective bill or whether House leader and Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, is prepared to bring the matter to a full House vote.

"I recognize that we have a tough job ahead of us to garner the necessary support," said the resolution's chief sponsor, Democratic Representative Adam Schiff.