The United States is in the regrettable position of having a 92-year-old problem, genocide waged against Armenians in 1915 in the old Ottoman Empire, creating a serious foreign policy and defense problem with Turkey today.

The source of the problem is the folly of the House Foreign Relations Committee, which voted 27-21 Wednesday to pass a nonbinding resolution condemning Turkey for the early-20th century massacre. It did so at the behest of some of the country's 385,000 Armenian Americans, who put pressure on the members who represent their districts.

There is no question that the 1915 genocide took place. It included ethnically and religiously based killing of civilians and was deplorable. At the same time it is important to look at historical context. The killing occurred in the dying days of the Ottoman Empire, eight years before the Turkish Republic, of which modern Turkey is the embodiment, was established in 1923. Describing Armenian Americans lobbying for passage of the resolution as "Armenian genocide survivors" is a misuse of words: a person born in 1915 would be 92 now.

Here is what is at stake in 2007. The Turkish government has deemed the congressional resolution "unacceptable." Turkey, a NATO ally since the Korean War, permits the delivery of 70 percent of U.S. military air cargo and 30 percent of the fuel that goes into Iraq through its facilities. Virtually all of the new anti-mine armored vehicles transit Turkey. Also, Turkey rarely bluffs; last year it broke all military ties with France when the French parliament passed legislation making denial of the genocide a crime.

In addition, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, after the holiday at the end of Ramadan, plans to ask his parliament to authorize a military incursion into the Kurdish region of Iraq, in response to the recent killing by Kurds there of Turkish soldiers and officials in Turkey.

The United States is asking Turkey not to take that action. The United States has consistently favored and protected Iraq's Kurds, starting in 1991 after the first Gulf War. American oil companies are now also seeking to take advantage of the absence of an Iraqi national oil law to sign contracts with the Kurdish regional government. Turkish military action in Kurdish Iraq would in general upset the U.S. apple cart in that part of the country.

Some anti-war Americans might think Turkey would help end the fighting in Iraq if it shut down deliveries of U.S. military equipment through its territory to Iraq. That is, however, entirely the wrong reason for passing the Armenia resolution.

Responsible congressional leadership should quietly but effectively shut down action on the resolution now. The administration of President Bush could then go to the Turks, point to that action, pledge to control the Kurds in Iraq who are attacking the Turks and ask Turkey to stay its hand rather than carry out cross-border attacks into northern Iraq.

The House committee's resolution on events in the Ottoman Empire 92 years ago is a clear case of the tail wagging the dog. It should not be allowed to occur.