AKP MP MEETS US OFFICIAL IN DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION

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Aug 27 2008
Turkey

Egemen Bagis, an MP from the ruling AKP, met Madeleine Albright,
a former U.S. secretary of state and the chairperson of the Board
of Directors of a think-tank named National Democratic Institute
over breakfast.

A Turkish parliamentarian had a meeting with a former U.S. secretary
of state in the United States on Tuesday.

Egemen Bagis, an MP from the ruling Justice & Development (AK) Party,
met Madeleine Albright, a former U.S. secretary of state and the
chairperson of the Board of Directors of a think-tank named National
Democratic Institute (NDI), over breakfast.

The NDI is an organization created by the United States government by
way of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) to channel grants
for furthering democracy in developing nations.

Bagis is representing AK Party in a convention of the Democratic
Party in Denver.

Bagis and Albright discussed the crisis between Georgia and
Russia, recent developments in Caucasus, energy security, Middle
East peace process, Turkey’s European Union (EU) membership bid,
Turkish-U.S. relations and Armenian allegations regarding the incidents
of 1915.

During the meeting, Albrigt appreciated Turkish Premier Recep Tayyip
Erdogan’s efforts for world peace and underlined Erdogan’s Caucasus
Pact idea which could bring together the parties in a peaceful
platform.

Also, both Bagis and Albrigt reaffirmed importance of Turkey’s role
as a mediator between Israel and Syria.

Bagis said that Albright, an influential person in the foreign policy
team of Barrack Obama–the presidential candidate for Democratic
Party, was one of the people in the United States who had perceived
Turkey’s importance.

Therefore, Bagis requested that Albright should prevent initiatives
that could harm relations in a possible Democrat Party administration,
and that she should boost relations.

Albright assured Bagis that she would continue to do her best to
further improve Turkish-U.S. relations.

Bagis also had talks with NDI President Kenneth Wollack, Georgia’s
Vice Premier Giorgi Baramidze, British parliamentarian Baroness Uddin,
and Reinhard Butikofer of the Greens party in Germany.

Albright is the first woman to become the U.S. Secretary of State. She
was appointed by President Bill Clinton on December 5th, 1996 and
was unanimously confirmed by the Senate 99-0. She was sworn in on
January 23rd, 1997 and served as the secretary till January 20th, 2001.