US congresswoman supports Turkish stand on Armenian issue

24.02.2007
Today's Zaman
İstanbul

American interests are served better if USA takes the high road to morality in its foreign policy. USA archives are full of testimony on the Armenian genocide. The fogging of the genocide is promoted by the Turkish lobby for the tenuous preservation of a self image anchored on forgetting its past history. The fact that Virginia Foxx does not take the time to read what is published in the USA archives should not reflect on other Congress members.

Turkish-American relations would be negatively affected if the Armenian genocide resolution gets approval from the House of Representatives, said Virginia Foxx, a Republican member of the US Congress.

As US President George W. Bush puts special importance on national security and counter-terrorism, the US administration is concerned that approval of the resolution would have a negative impact on the American fight against terror and its relations with Turkey.

Foxx's statements came after a luncheon meeting with the Turkish-American Chamber of Commerce and Industry held in her honor at a Turkish restaurant in New York. Fox joined the Turkish-American Friendship Group in the US Congress, after she was elected the North Carolina representative, in an effort to help improve relations between Turkey and America.

Putting her personal stance on the resolution in words that expressed opposition to the bill because, she believed, there was no sound reason behind it, Foxx further said that most representatives who signed the resolution do not actually know much about it and have not thought about it deeply. Foxx added that the recent shift of power in the House of Representatives from the Republicans to the Democrats was adding to the concerns of the US administration. Historically, US Democrats have been more supportive of the Armenian claims than Republicans.

House Speaker and Democrat Nancy Pelosi has expressed support for the resolution. The Armenian genocide resolution was introduced on January 30th and currently has about 170 co-sponsors.

Mustafa Merç, the president of the Chamber, told the Anatolia news agency that they were maintaining a series of one-to-one connections with US congressmen in order to convey a truthful picture of problems facing Turkey, to improve the American image of Turkey and to prevent the passage of the Armenian resolution.

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.