Agence France Presse
April 2, 2010 Friday 8:34 PM GMT

US welcomes return of Turkish ambassador

Washington, April 2 2010

The United States on Friday welcomed Turkey’s decision to return its
ambassador after a row over moves in Congress to brand the World War I
massacres of Armenians as genocide.

"We welcome that decision," State Department spokesman Philip Crowley
told reporters.

"Turkey and the United States have a significant strategic
relationship. There’s lots of work that we can jointly accomplish, and
that work becomes more effective when we have an able interlocutor
here in Washington," he said.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan earlier said "positive
developments" in the month-old spat had permitted the return of the
ambassador, adding he would go to Washington to attend a nuclear
security summit on April 12-13.

Ankara recalled Ambassador Namik Tan on March 4 immediately after the
House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee adopted a
resolution branding the 1915-17 massacres of Armenians under the
Ottoman Empire as genocide.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she opposed the move and had
urged the congressional leadership not to bring the resolution before
the full House, warning it would set back diplomacy between Turkey and
Armenia.

Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their kin perished in deportations
and orchestrated killings under the Ottoman Empire during World War I.

Turkey counters that 300,000 to 500,000 Armenians and at least as many
Turks perished in civil strife when Armenians rose up against their
Ottoman rulers and sided with Russian forces invading the crumbling
empire.