ENVOY TO TURKEY: US UNEASY ABOUT KURDISH EFFORTS TO CHANGE KIRKUK DEMOGRAPHY

Anatolia news agency, Ankara
20 Oct 04

Kayseri, 20 October: US Ambassador to Turkey Eric Edelman said on
Wednesday (20 October) that also the United States felt uneasy about
Kurdish groups’ attempts to change demographic structure in Kirkuk,
Iraq, by settling their families in the city.

Speaking at a conference held in the Erciyes University in central
city of Kayseri on “2004 Presidential Elections in the United States”,
Edelman said that there would not be serious changes in Turkey-US
relations following the presidential elections in the United
States. Stressing that the United States had been supporting Turkey’s
EU process since 1963, Edelman said that there could be a difference
between the two candidates (President George W. Bush and John Kerry)
about a resolution like the draft on so-called Armenian genocide. He
said that the candidates, sometimes, could not fulfil their promises
when they came to the power. He highlighted strategic importance of
Turkey-US relations.

Edelman said he believed that the Turkish government, the Iraqi heads
of state and government and the United States were in favour of
preserving Iraqi’s political unity and territorial integrity.

When asked, “who will be bombed next?” Edelman said that there had
been very sound relations between Turkey and the United States, and
any attack on Turkey would be out of question. Referring to the
relations between the Turkish prime minister and the US president,
Edelman said that those relations were further consolidated during
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s visit to Washington DC and
President George W. Bush’s visit to Turkey for NATO summit.

He said that Turkey and the United States had been working together to
find a solution to the Cyprus issue.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress