DEFENSE SECRETARY SAYS AMERICA NEEDS TURKEY AS CONGRESS MULLS ARMENIAN GENOCIDE BILL

All Headline News
March 28 2007

Matthew Borghese – All Headline News Staff Writer Washington,
D.C. (AHN) – At a time when the United States is engaged in Afghanistan
and Iraq, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates says America’s relationship
with Turkey is "under valued and under appreciated."

Turkey, which borders Iraq and holds a substantial portion of ethnic
Kurds, "is vitally important to security challenges facing the U.S."

according to Secretary Gates, who spoke at a Washington, D.C. dinner
hosted by the American-Turkish Council (ATC).

Secretary Gates says, "Our military, economic, political and personal
ties remain strong," adding that American companies are currently
working with $175 million from Turkey to develop the new Joint Strike
Fighter (JSF). Ankara has agreed to buy 100 of the F-35 Lightning II
supersonic stealth fighters when they roll off the production line.

Turkey has contributed troops to the NATO International Security
Assistance Force in Afghanistan, and more importantly allows American
planes to reach Iraq via its airspace. Without such access, Gates
says bringing troops and supplies to Baghdad would be "exceedingly
more difficult and vastly more expensive."

"Iraq’s neighbors will need to play a constructive role going forward
even if they haven’t done so in the past; especially in encouraging
political reconciliation and a reduction in violence within Iraq.

This is certainly the case with Syria and Iran. They have not been
helpful," Gates adds.

The Defense Secretary also subtly spoke out against a bill currently
in Congress, which would classify the deaths of Armenians in Turkey
as a genocide, saying, "The two nations should oppose measures and
rhetoric that needlessly and destructively antagonize each other.

That includes symbolic resolutions by the United States Congress
as well as the type of anti-American and extremist rhetoric that
sometimes finds a home in Turkey’s political discourse."