RICE DEFENDS TURKEY AGAINST ARMENIAN ALLEGATIONS
NTV MSNBC, Turkey
March 22 2007
Rice said she was opposed to the US entering the debate at the
parliamentary level.
Guncelleme: 14:54 TSÝ 22 Mart 2007 PerþembeWASHINGTON – There is
a greater level of openness in Turkey with regard to debates over
allegations surrounding the Armenian issue, US Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice said late Wednesday.
Speaking before a committee of the US House of Representatives, Rice
said that the US had been working to encourage Turkey and Armenian
to discuss the issue.
"What we’ve encouraged the Turks and the Armenians to do is to have
joint historical commissions that can look at this, to have efforts
to examine their past, and in examining their past to get over it,"
Rice said.
Her comments came in response to questions from Democratic
Representative Adam Schiff, who has prepared a bill calling on the
US to formally recognise claims the Ottoman Empire committed an act
of genocide against its Armenian citizens during the First World War.
"I do not think it helps that process of reconciliation for the United
States to enter this debate at that level," she said.
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