US GOVERNMENT STILL PUSHING FOR ARMENIAN BILL TO BE DROPPED: WILSON

NTV MSNBC, Turkey
March 28 2007

Washington’s ambassador to Turkey said that Turkish-Armenian relations
should move on.

Guncelleme: 13:52 TSÝ 28 Mart 2007 Carþamba

WASHINGTON – Senior US officials had taken a number of measures to
defuse a looming crisis over a draft bill tabled before the House
of Representatives calling for formal recognition of the so-called
Armenian genocide, Washington’s ambassador to Turkey said late Tuesday.

Speaking at a meeting of the American-Turkish Council in Washington,
Ambassador Ross Wilson said that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice,
Secretary of Defence Robert Gates and Assistant Secretary of State
for European and Eurasian Affairs Dan Fried had launched several
initiatives about the draft bill.

The text of the draft bill calls on the US to recognise claims
that the Ottoman Empire committed an act of genocide against its
Armenian citizens during World War One. Turkey strongly rejects any
such allegations.

Wilson said that Turkey, as a powerful country in its region, could
guide Armenia and that relations should move on from 1915.

Turkish Ambassador to the United States Nabi Sensoy said in his
address to the meeting that the draft bills on so-called Armenian
genocide, submitted to the House of Representatives and the Senate,
could affect Turkish-US ties in near future.

"Turkish people are quite sensitive over these issues. And any
government cannot ignore views of its own people," he said.

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