Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's overview of the Turkish foreign policy at the Brookings Institute on Friday included important criticisms on U.S. handling of the "war on terror" and the European Union. Nuclear powers must disarm first to tell Iran not to go nuclear. Erdogan also said and warned certain lobbies could hurt Turkish-Armenian relations. In a speech to the Brookings Institute on Friday, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned the in-coming U.S. administration of issues that could taint future bilateral relations between the two countries, while maintaining his belief that the bilateral relations would continue to improve.
"U.S. support is essential for maintaining the dialogue initiated with Armenia. Steps taken during the new period must not hinder our efforts," Erdogan said. A resolution by the U.S. Congress that recognized mass killings of Armenians during the Ottoman era as genocide, which was later dropped, strained Turkish American relations last year.
"Lobbies must not take part in solving international disputes," Erdogan stated, referring to the Armenian lobbies in the United States, who were promised U.S. President-elect Barack Obama would formally recognize the mass killings as genocide.
Erdogan
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