Embassy Row

January 3, 2006
Washington Times
By James Morrison

[...]
Sixty members of Congress are urging Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to pressure Turkey into withdrawing troops from Cyprus, ending its blockade of Armenia and recognizing the Armenian "genocide" of 1915.
[...]
The letter, written by Rep. Jim Costa, California Democrat, said the European Union already is demanding that Turkey end its blockade of Armenia and withdraw troops from northern Cyprus.[...].

Mr. Costa, whose Central Valley district includes 60,000 Armenian-Americans, said Turkey is undermining its own self-interests with its blockade of Armenia, claiming Turkey's foreign policy is "held hostage by the interests of Azerbaijan." Turkey imposed the blockade after Armenia supported an armed uprising by ethnic Armenians in Azerbaijan.

He also urged Turkey to recognize the conflict between Armenians and the Ottoman Turkish Empire during World War I as genocide. Armenians say the genocide took more than 1.5 million lives, but Turkey argues that the lives were lost during a conflict between Turkish and Armenian forces.
[...]

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.