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Turkey backpedaling on Armenia ties, US lawmakers say

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  • Turkey backpedaling on Armenia ties, US lawmakers say

    TurkishNY
    Aug 1 2009



    Turkey backpedaling on Armenia ties, US lawmakers say

    Saturday, 01 August 2009 08:26


    Pro-Armenian members of the US House of Representatives step up their
    efforts on normalization talks between Ankara and Yerevan, slamming
    Turkey over what they call a reversal on the proposed 'road map.'
    Turkey's position is in conflict with the US policy that normalization
    should take place without preconditions, they say

    More than 80 pro-Armenian members of the U.S. House of Representatives
    sent a letter Thursday to President Barack Obama, complaining that
    Turkey is failing to keep its pledge to move to normalize relations
    with Armenia.
    The letter said Turkey was in violation of an April deal with Yerevan.

    `While the government of Armenia remains committed to this road map
    and has long offered to establish ties with Turkey without
    preconditions, Turkey's public statements and actions since April 24
    stand in sharp contrast to this agreement and undermine U.S. policy
    that normalization take place without preconditions,' the lawmakers
    said in the letter.

    According to the representatives, Turkey's position is in conflict
    with the U.S. policy `that normalization should take place without
    preconditions and within a reasonable timeframe.'

    Eighty-one lawmakers out the 435 members of the House of
    Representatives signed the letter sent to Obama one day before the
    House went on a one-month summer recess.

    Reps. Frank Pallone, Mark Kirk, Adam Schiff and George Radanovich
    initiated the letter July 10. The four are also the lead co-sponsors
    of a House resolution affirming the U.S. record on Armenian claims of
    genocide. The text of the letter was circulated to secure additional
    congressional co-signers. Signatories to the letter included
    Democratic Congressman Howard Berman from California, who is the
    chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

    The genocide issue

    Pro-Armenian lawmakers are planning to step up efforts to ensure the
    passage of an `Armenian genocide resolution' pending in the House
    after Congress reopens in September, analysts said.

    Turkey and Armenia signed a document April 22, pledging to work to
    normalize their relations. Although their road map has not been made
    public, sources said it includes the setting up of full diplomatic
    relations, and, more importantly, the reopening of the two neighbors'
    land border, which has been closed for 16 years.

    In the wake of the April document's signing, President Obama declined
    to describe the World War I-era killings of Armenians in the Ottoman
    empire as `genocide' in his annual statement on April 24, the day of
    commemoration of the Armenian deaths.

    Obama said he fully supported the Turkish-Armenian reconciliation
    process.

    The president's decision not to say the word `genocide' disappointed
    members of the Armenian diaspora in the United States.

    Though separate from other matters in principle, the normalization
    process is indirectly related to an international effort to resolve
    the long-standing Nagorno-Karabakh problem between Armenia and
    Azerbaijan, a close ally and friend of Turkey.

    Armenia has occupied the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh and part of
    Azerbaijan proper since a war in the early 1990s. Though an uneasy
    cease-fire is in place, a peace agreement has never been
    signed. Diplomats privately admit that no major progress has been made
    on either front since April.

    http://www.turkishny.com/en/english-news/1 2657-turkey-backpedaling-on-armenia-ties-us-lawmak ers-say.html
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