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AFP: US welcomes return of Turkish ambassador

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  • AFP: US welcomes return of Turkish ambassador

    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.
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