PRESIDENT: WASHINGTON MUST AVOID DAMAGING RELATIONS WITH TURKEY

Trend
March 4 2010
Azerbaijan

In a telephone conversation with his American counterpart Barack Obama,
Turkish President Abdullah Gul said Washington should not allow the
relations between the U.S. and Turkey to be damaged on the backdrop
of their peak of development, the Turkish media reported.

In his turn, President Obama has called on Turkey to speed up the
ratification process of the Armenian-Turkish protocols.

The telephone conversation between the two presidents took place on
the backdrop of discussions in the U.S. Congress committee on foreign
affairs over resolution on so-called "Armenian genocide".

The idea of bringing the question into debate was made by chairman
of the committee on foreign affairs of the U.S. Congress Howard Berman.

Three Armenian and eight Turkish MPs are watching the discussions.

Prior to discussions, the U.S. President Barack Obama advised Congress
not to adopt resolution on genocide, CNN Turk reported.

Armenia claims that the Ottoman Empire committed genocide against
Armenians living in Anatolia in 1915. Making greater efforts to promote
the issue internationally, Armenians have achieved its recognition
by parliaments of some countries.

Meanwhile the U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in a telephone
conversation with the chairman of the committee on foreign affairs
of the U.S. Congress said that the adoption of resolution jeopardizes
the Armenian-Turkish protocols.

Speaking at a press conference on Thursday, Foreign Minister of
Turkey Ahmet Davutoglu urged the U.S. not to risk the progress made
in resolving the Armenian-Turkish relations, considering this issue.

"The United States has now two options: to turn all the progress made
in relations between Turkey and Armenia and in general in the South
Caucasus to no, or to continue promoting the peace process in the
region, said Davutoglu. – We think they will choose the second option."

Turkey and Armenia signed two protocols on October 10, 2009 to
normalize relations between the two countries.

After his official visit to Moscow, the Prime Minister of Turkey
Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in Ankara in December that this process is
directly related to the solution of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, despite
that some people have argued that the Turkish-Armenian relations are
separate from the Nagorno-Karabakh.