TURKISH MINISTER SAYS ARMENIAN RESOLUTION "POISONS" TURKISH-US RELATIONS

Anatolia News Agency, Turkey
Oct 30 2007

Ankara, 30 October: The Turkish foreign minister and chief negotiator
for EU talks, Ali Babacan, said Turkey hopes the US House committee
resolution on Armenian allegations will not be brought to a full
House vote.

"This issue poisons relations between Turkey and the United States,"
Babacan said at a seminar on foreign policy at Justice and Development
(AK) Party HQs.

Reminding that the US House of Representatives foreign affairs
committee approved a resolution on Armenian allegations regarding
the incidents of 1915, Babacan said the approval of the resolution
had negative effect on Turkish-US relations.

"We hope this issue will be over," Babacan told the seminar.

"Mr Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan wrote a letter to his Armenian
counterpart and offered to establish a joint commission to conduct a
research in archives. We are confident of our history and ourselves. We
are always ready to face our history. However, we have not got any
response yet," Babacan said.

Babacan said full membership to EU and Cyprus question are the two
priorities in Turkey’s foreign policy.

He said Turkey’s relations with the EU continue on a sound legal base,
noting that they have no doubts about Turkey’s EU process. "It is
Turkey’s right," he added.

On Cyprus, Babacan said Turkey will continue to exert efforts to find
a permanent solution to the problem in a mechanism that would include
the United Nations.