Turkish Press / Anatolian Times – Turkey
Sept 14 2005
Initiatives Taken Against Armenian Resolutions In U.S.
WASHINGTON D.C. – Retired General Brent Scowcroft, who was the former
national security adviser of US Presidents George Bush and Henry
Ford, wrote a letter to US House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert asking him
to foreclose the submission of two resolutions demanding that the US
House of Representatives acknowledge the so-called Armenian genocide,
it was reported on Tuesday.
Scowcroft, who is also the Chairman of American-Turkish Council
(ATC), wrote in his later dated Sept. 12th, that the mentioned
resolutions would appear on the agenda of the International Relations
Committee of the US House of Representatives on Sept. 15th.
Sources in D.C. think that the resolutions could be adopted. The
resolutions can be debated at the House, if House Speaker Hastert
decides to include them into the agenda.
”I, with the members of ATC, strongly oppose these resolutions which
contradict with the US interests. The adoption of these resolutions
can also have serious consequences,” Scowcroft said.
Referring to one-billion dollar loss of France –because of contract
cancellations and business opportunities lost in Turkey– after the
adoption of a similar resolution by the French Senate, Scowcroft said
that the use of ”genocide discourse” by the US Congress would
negatively affect US strategic and business interests in Turkey and
in the region, and it would also encourage those who try to take
Turkey away from the West.
Scowcroft said that it was up to historians, not to politicians, to
find an answer to such kind of issues, adding that the issue was
still debated by academicians, historians and experts.
Also praising the letter which Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan sent to Armenian President Robert Kocharian dated April 10th,
2005, Scowcroft said that Kocharian should positively respond to
Erdogan.
Meanwhile Assembly of Turkish-American Associations (ATAA) has also
started a campaign asking the US Congress members to oppose the
resolutions.