ERDOGAN RECEIVES TURKISH-SPEAKING FOREIGN STUDENTS, US CONGRESSMEN
Turkish Press
Turkiye
May 29 2007
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan yesterday received some 600
students from foreign schools in over 100 different countries being
educated in Turkish. Speaking with the pupils, who are in Turkey to
attend the Fifth Turkish Olympics, Erdogan said that he was proud to
see them speak Turkish so well, adding that the spread of the Turkish
tongue worldwide would be a momentous development. The premier also
met with US congressmen on a visit to Turkey. Speaking to reporters
afterwards, Representative Ed Whitfield and Senator Benjamin Nelson
said that they had talked with Erdogan about the presence of the
terrorist PKK in northern Iraq, the so-called Armenian genocide
resolution before the US Congress, and Turkey’s European Union
membership bid, as well as Germany and France’s stance towards it.
The Cyprus issue was also taken up, they added. Moreover, the
congressmen stated that they expected more concrete steps from the
US administration against the terrorist PKK, adding that they had
not encouraged Ankara to take a cross-border military operation into
northern Iraq.