US, TURKEY POSTPONE BUSINESS MEETING

Hurriyet
March 22 2010
Turkey

‘We wish for trade relations between the two countries, as well as
investments, to develop further,’ says Ugur Terzioglu.

An annual conference on United States-Turkey relations scheduled
for April 11-14 has been postponed due to tensions over the U.S.’s
official attitude toward Armenian genocide claims, according to the
chairman of a Turkish business association.

The 29th Annual Conference on United States-Turkey Relations was
postponed due to fears there would be low attendance by Turkish
representatives, according to Ugur Terzioglu, chairman of the
Turkish-American Business Association, or TABA/AmCham.

"With respect to our government’s politics and depending on the
fact whether U.S. President Barack Obama uses the world ‘genocide,’
we are supporting the postponement of the American-Turkish Council
[ATC] meeting," he said.

"We hope to see the dark clouds over politics to disappear. We wish
for trade relations between the two countries, as well as investments,
to develop further," he said.

The Turkish-American Business Council, or TAIK, and the ATC made the
postponement decision together, said the Foreign Economic Relations
Board of Turkey, or DEÄ°K.

On Saturday, DEÄ°K said the conference, which was planned for the
second week of April in Washington, was postponed due to the approval
of a resolution on genocide claims in a Foreign Affairs Committee of
the U.S. Congress and the political tensions it subsequently raised.

On March 4, the U.S. House committee approved a resolution that
supported Armenian genocide allegations during the deaths of Ottoman
Armenians in 1915.

In response to the development, Turkey has temporarily recalled its
ambassador in Washington, Namık Tan, to Ankara.