Stating that he had contacts in Washington related to "Armenian genocide" bill which will be voted in U.S. Senate in 24 April and relations between Washington and Ankara administration, Kinikoglu said that the delegation of Turkish Grand National Assembly had occasions to meet U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Dan Fried, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Euroasian Affairs Matthew Bryza, members of Congress that have close relations with Armenian lobby and Senators.
Stating that the members of the Congress who have good relations with Armenian lobbies are also aware that the recognition of a "genocide" resolution will affect Ankara-Yerevan dialogue negatively, Kinikoglu said that this issue is confusing them. Kinikoglu said, "It is for sure that our visit went well and it was good about timing. We believe that the relations between Ankara and the new American administration will be positive. Of cource it is unlucky for the new administration to deal with an issue like Armenian issue as fast as they take over the management. As they are intended to develop Turkish-American relations and while they underscored this intention in their policy, to face with such issue really puts them in a difficult position. But i believe that Turkey will have closer relations with new American administration looking to the past eight years."
We had the occasion to meet all parties who are related with Armenian resolution. We had meetings with U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Dan Fried, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Euroasian Affairs Matthew Bryza, members of Congress that have close relations with Armenian lobby and Senators. We expressed that recognition of such resolution would agitate Turkish American relations in the begining and it would reflect to the all fields of cooperation. We told them that resolution may damage the dialogue between Turkey and Armenia and the normalization between Azerbaijan and Armenia. Mostly our adressees also were aware of this fact but they feel they owe to Armenian lobbies as they just came through the elections.
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