US JEWISH LEADER PRAISES TURKEY’S MIDEAST ROLE
Today’s Zaman
02 July 2008, Wednesday
Turkey
The chairman of one of the largest Jewish-American groups has thanked
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan for his government’s role in
restarting peace talks between Syria and Israel several years after
they collapsed amid disputes.
Abraham H. Foxman, the national director and chairman of the
Anti-Defamation League (ADL), praised Turkish efforts for peace when he
met Prime Minister Erdogan late on Monday in Ankara, officials at the
Prime Ministry said. Israel and Syria confirmed in May that they began
Turkish-mediated talks a year ago. Two rounds of indirect talks have
been held since then in Ä°stanbul, and a third round is in the offing.
Erdogan and Foxman also discussed Turkish-US relations, officials
said. Erdogan thanked Foxman for his stance in regard to Armenian
allegations of genocide at the hands of the Ottoman Empire during
the years around World War I.
After pressure from Armenian groups and some members of the ADL,
Foxman last year reversed the organization’s long-held policy and
decided to call events of the World War I era genocide. But Foxman
insists that two resolutions pending in the US Congress endorsing
the genocide claims would not help resolve the dispute between Turks
and Armenians. He reiterated on Monday that disputes between Turks
and Armenians can best be settled between the two countries, not via
resolutions passed in parliaments.
–Boundary_(ID_n7Caa/8KP82D3o8Q80kvy w)–