TURKEY TO SEND ENVOY BACK TO US

BBC NEWS
urope/8600915.stm
2010/04/02 14:05:59 GMT

Turkey says it will send its ambassador back to the US, nearly a
month after a panel voted to call the killings of Armenians in World
War I genocide.

Turkey recalled the ambassador shortly after the vote by a US
congressional committee on 4 March.

The White House has said it opposes the congressional resolution.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan also reversed a decision to
cancel plans to attend a nuclear security meeting in Washington on
12-13 April.

"Before I attend this gathering, I will send the ambassador to the
United States next week," Mr Erdogan said.

‘Positive developments’

The resolution, passed by the House Foreign Affairs Committee in
March, calls on President Barack Obama to ensure that US foreign
policy reflects an understanding of the "genocide", and to label the
World War I killings as such in his annual statement on the issue,
which is made in April.

Turkey has urged Washington to prevent the US Congress from holding
a full vote on the motion.

Mr Erdogan said there had been "some positive developments" since
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Turkish Foreign Minister
Ahmet Davutoglu spoke by phone last week.

"I hope these positive developments will continue also in April,"
he added.

Earlier this week, Turkey sent back its ambassador to Sweden, who
had also been recalled in March after the Swedish parliament voted
to label the WWI killings as genocide.

Turkey argues that the hundreds of thousands of Armenians who died
in 1915 were victims of war, not an organised genocide.

Armenians have campaigned for the killings to be recognised
internationally as genocide.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress