Arab Monitor
March 7 2010

Turkey’s ambassador to the USA returned to Ankara for consultations

Ankara, 6 March – Turkey’s ambassador to the United States Namik Tan
arrived in Ankara after having been recalled by the Foreign Ministry
following the vote of the US House of Representatives Committee on
Foreign Affairs, which provoked Ankara by approving a controversial
draft bill. The draft, if approved by both US legislative bodies,
would officially recognize as genocide the expulsion of Armenians from
today’s Turkish territory, an issue dating back to 1915.

Still at the airport Tan made a short statement asserting that he had
been recalled for consultations and that he was ready to resume his
post in Washington as soon as the Foreign Ministry would see fit.
Regarding the controversial vote, he declared that "we condemn this
resolution which charges the Turkish nation with a crime that it did
not commit". Ankara argues that 300.000 to 500.000 Armenians and at
least as many Turks died in what was a civil strife, during a period
when Armenians rose up against the Ottoman Empire and sided with the
invading Russian troops.

Commenting the US Congress’ panel’s move, Turkish Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan declared: "Let me say quite clearly that this
resolution will not harm us. But it will damage bilateral relations
between countries, their interests and their visions for the future.
We will not be the losers". The push for an official recognition of an
alleged genocide of Armenians has touched a sensitive fault-line in
US-Turkish relations, and this in a time in which the White House
wants to rely on Ankara’s cooperation to ensure success of its own
strategy in Afghanistan, but foremost and more urgently in Iraq.

Turkey is regarded a key-player in closing the Iraq dilemma for the
US, who, since they did not succeed in containing Teheran’s influence
in occupied Iraq, are now counting on the balancing power of the
Turkish influence. In this context Ankara promised that whatever the
outcome of tomorrow’s electoral polls in Iraq might be, it is planning
to open two new consulates, one in Kirkuk and one in Arbil, thereby
increasing its diplomatic missions to five including Baghdad, Basra
and Mosul.

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From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress