TURKISH FM TO VISIT WASHINGTON BEFORE OBAMA’S APRIL 24 STATEMENT ON ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

14:43, 17 Apr 2015
Siranush Ghazanchyan

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut CavuÃ…~_oglu will visit Washington from
April 18 to 21, during which he is likely to focus influencing the
wording of the White House’s official commemoration on the upcoming
centennial anniversary of the mass killings of Ottoman Armenians in
1915, the Hurriyet Daily News reports.

CavuÃ…~_oglu will meet U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, White House
National Security Adviser Susan Rice, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch
McConnell, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Tanju Bilgic told reporters
on April 16.

He will also visit the Turkish-American Cultural and Civilization
Center and participate in a conference at the Carnegie Endowment for
International Peace.

Also expected to be on the agenda of the visit are the situations in
Syria, Iraq, Ukraine, Libya, Yemen, and Cyprus, as well as the fight
against terrorism and the issue of energy security.

Regarding Barack Obama’s annual April 24 declaration, CavuÃ…~_oglu is
expected to focus efforts on urging Washington not to use the word
“genocide” in his statement. In recent years, Obama has used the term
“Meds Yeghern” (meaning “great catastrophe” in Armenian) to address
the events of 1915.

Meanwhile, a senior U.S. diplomat has been holding talks with Turkish
officials in Ankara, days before CavuÃ…~_oglu departs for Washington.

The U.S. State Department’s Assistant Secretary for European and
Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland, who arrived in Turkey on April
15, was set to meet Turkish Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Feridun
Sinirlioglu late on April 16.

Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Bilgic declined to elaborate on items
on the agenda of the meeting between Nuland and Sinirlioglu, only
saying it was part of “regular political consultation.”

From: A. Papazian