TURKISH ENVOY HEADS BACK TO US AFTER ‘GENOCIDE’ ROW

Agence France Presse
April 6, 2010 Tuesday 6:36 AM GMT

Turkey’s ambassador to the United States headed back to his post
Tuesday, a month after he was recalled when a House panel voted a
bill branding the World War I massacres of Armenians as genocide.

"The message we wanted to give has been understood… and we are
satisfied," Ambassador Namik Tan said at the airport. "It is time
for me to go back."

Last week, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan hailed "positive
developments" in efforts to end the spat and said he himself would
go to Washington to attend a nuclear security summit on April 12-13.

Ankara recalled Tan on March 4 after the House of Representatives’
Foreign Affairs Committee adopted a resolution calling on President
Barack Obama to ensure that US foreign policy reflects an understanding
of the "genocide."

Warning of a showdown between the two NATO allies, Ankara urged
Washington to stop the bill from advancing to a vote at the full House.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had urged the committee not
to hold the vote and said after its approval that "we do not believe
the full Congress will or should act on that resolution."

The tensions added further uncertainty to an already fragile deal
Turkey and Armenia signed in October to end decades of hostility,
establish diplomatic ties and open their border.

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.