Zaman, Turkey
March 15 2005

Edelman Advises Turkey on Damascus
By Cihan News Agency
Published: Tuesday 15, 2005
zaman.com

The US Ambassador to Ankara Eric Edelman said that they expect
Turkey to support the United Nations (UN) resolution taken over
Syria.

Edelman who traveled to Bursa to attend meetings visited the Governor
Oguz Kagan Koksal. The Ambassador responded to questions from the
media following his meeting.

In response to a question about the US demand that the Turkish
President Ahmet Necdet Sezer should cancel his visit to Syria, he
said that the UN has made a decision regarding Syria and that is,
that it must pullout its soldiers out of Lebanon. The international
community should be in complete consensus as required by the UN
Security Council’s 1559th resolution. Following this decision, Syria
should immediately withdraw its troops from Lebanon. The US President
George W. Bush during his last European tour met with many leaders,
most importantly France, Germany, Russia, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia and
they all shared a common view. We hope that Turkey will also be
listed among the international community on this issue. Whether or
not to obey the international community is completely Turkey’s
decision.

The US Ambassador said regarding the alleged Armenian genocide that
it will probably come to the agenda at the US Congress in April and
continued that the traditional manner of the US administration is to
leave these events in 1915-1916 to historians.

On the other hand upon the question of whether or not the pressure by
the Armenian lobby was the issue, Edelman said that all minorities in
the US have the right to speak their ideas freely and added, “The
manner of the administration on this issue is as I said.”

When he was asked about is response to news in opposition to the US
published in Turkish media, he said, “Our biggest concern most of the
time is that the news based on conspiracy theories.”