LOBBYING HAS LIMITS

AZG Armenian Daily
19/10/2007

ANKARA (EJP)—Emphasizing that Israel gives utmost importance to
its relations with Turkey, Gabby Levy, the newly appointed Israeli
ambassador to Turkey said that Israel has done everything it could
to stop the Armenian genocide resolution at the US Congress. Born in
Turkey and son of a Turkish Jewish family, Levy told Turkey’s

English-language Today’s Zaman newspaper that the US government is
also against the resolution and that it is wrong to blame the Jewish
lobby in the United States.A New York-based Jewish organization,
the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), recently reversed its long-time
policy and said the killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915
"were indeed tantamount to genocide."

Levy said "lobbying has limits" and that the resolution is a
result ofUS domestic politics. He added that he did not believe the
resolution’s passage would harm relations between Israel and Turkey
in the long run and cited theinvitation to Ankara of Hamas officials
and the short-term crisiscreated by it as an example.

The US House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs last
week approved a resolution calling the 1915 killings of Armenians
genocide,despite White House warnings that it would do great harm to
ties with NATO ally Turkey, a key supporter in the Iraq war.

The vote outraged the Turkish government, which issued a statement
stating that the "irresponsible" resolution was likely to endanger
bilateral relations.

Turkey rejects the Armenian claims and says the genocide issue should
be tackled by historians.

Levy said Israel was pleased about Turkey’s role between his country
and the Palestinians. "The Western countries send money to the
Palestinians, but Turkey brings lasting solutions by establishing
industrial areas," he said.

***

Gabby Levy was born in 1948 in an old neighborhood of Bergama, a
tiny town in the Aegean region. His Turkish-Jewish family migrated to
Israel when Levy was four. He still has a number of close relatives
living in Ýzmir and Istanbul.

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