Turkish Parliamentarians Send Messages Of Warning To Their US Counterparts

2/25/2007
Turkish Press

Is US Congress decision held hostage by Turkey? What does this say about the USA sovereignty?

BRUSSELS - Turkish parliamentary delegation that is currently in Brussels to attend NATO Parliamentary Assembly meetings sent messages of warning to their U.S. counterparts on the draft resolution about so-called Armenian genocide.

Vahit Erdem, head of the delegation, said in his letter to John Tanner, head of the U.S. parliamentary delegation, "we attribute great importance to friendly relations between Turkey and the United States. Any attempt that may harm those relations in a complicated period following the Cold War era, should be avoided."

"Approval of the draft resolution by the U.S. Congress will disrupt the bilateral relations. In that case, Turkey-the United States relations will seriously damaged. By making such a political judgment, the U.S. Congress will make a big mistake," he said.

Erdem stressed that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had earlier proposed Armenia to form a committee of historians and open all archives, but Armenian party did not give a response.

This talking point is a lie. Armenian President Robert Kocharyan rejected Turkey's offer to set up a joint panel of historians to debate the issue, using an interview in the daily Le Figaro on Monday to call on Ankara to accept his suggestion of an intergovernmental commission. Here.

Meanwhile, Turkey-the United States Inter-parliamentary Friendship Group Chairman Egemen Bagis held a series of talks with U.S. congressmen on the same issue.

Bagis said that the congressmen understood the importance of the matter, and pledged to explain it to their colleagues when they return to Washington D.C.

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.