RESOLUTION ADOPTION TO DETERIORATE U.S.-TURKEY RELATIONS: CONGRESSMAN

News.am
March 4 2010
Armenia

Genocide Resolution’s passing in the U.S. House Committee on Foreign
Affairs will lead to deterioration in U.S.-Turkey relations only
bringing new problems, said U.S. House Representative Ed Whitfield.

According to TRT, Whitfield stated that he was very disappointed with
the resolution. "Unfortunately, the issue became topical when Armenia
and Turkey are negotiating, and the responsibility for the issue
resolution was pinned with historians and the necessity of opening
the archives was acknowledged," Whitfield stated. He also added that
nonbinding discussion of the resolution is waste of time. The official
underlined that resolution was considered by the House members in the
past, but was not approved. "Obama shows no initiative on the matter,
he does not try to block resolution adoption. I believe he makes a big
mistake upholding this position. It is generally known that Obama paid
one of his first official visits to Turkey after being elected. Turkey
is a critical NATO member and has military contingent in Afghanistan.

There is also U.S. base on the territory of Turkey, let alone the
fact Ankara is a major trade partner for the U.S.," he emphasized.

The congressman cited UK’s attitude about the Genocide as an example,
saying that "UK safeguards neutrality on the issue."