TURKISH SPEAKER TELLS PELOSI ARMENIAN BILL WILL HARM TURKISH-US TIES
Anatolia News Agency, Turkey
Oct 7 2007
Ankara, 7 October: Turkish Speaker of Parliament Koksal Toptan has sent
a letter to the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives
Nancy Pelosi on a resolution regarding the incidents of 1915 and that
supports Armenian allegations, it was reported on Sunday [7 October].
In his letter, Toptan reminded Pelosi about the strong relations
between Turkey and the US for the past 50 years.
"A resolution giving support to one sided claims, if adopted, would
make the Armenians less willing to compromise," told Toptan in
his letter.
"If adopted, the Armenian resolution would encourage Armenians to
introduce the incidents of 1915 as those accepted by the US and
this is how the Turkish society would perceive the decision of
the US Congress. It would be very difficult to stop the negative
impact such a resolution would have on the Turkish public opinion,"
underlined Toptan.
"The adoption of an Armenian resolution in regard to the incidents
of 1915 in the United States House of Representatives would not serve
the interests of neither the Turkish people nor the American people.
Furthermore, the resolution would hurt Turkish-US relations and have
a negative impact on the normalization of relations between Turkey
and Armenia," said Turkish Speaker of Parliament Koksal Toptan, in a
letter sent to the Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy
Pelosi, on Sunday.
In his letter to Pelosi, Toptan indicated that Turkey and the US
have been close friends and allies for over 50 years. "We share
common values such as plural democracy, the rule of law, and free
entrepreneurship. Both nations have a desire to boost relations
further.
We work together in many parts of the world to preserve peace and
stability," noted Toptan.
Toptan stressed that the adoption of the House Resolution 106
pertaining to the incidents of 1915 would very seriously hurt
Turkish-US relations.
In his letter, Toptan reminded Pelosi that in 2005 the Turkish
government extended an invitation to Armenia to establish a joint
historical commission to study the incidents of 1915. No response
came from Armenia to date.
Toptan indicated that "hopefully, logic will prevail in the US House
of Representatives and the resolution would not be adopted."
Toptan added that the adoption of the Armenian resolution in the
US House of Representatives would injure Turkish-US relations whose
repair may take decades.