"I am very happy to say that we are in a historic era where our policies are almost identical on all issues," Ahmet Davutoglu, the chief foreign policy advisor for Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, told reporters in Washington on Thursday.
"President Obama's decision to come to Turkey is a mark of this historic era, this constructive and cooperative period." He had meetings with senior US administration officials, including National Security Adviser James Jones, ahead of Obama's visit, which is expected to take place April 6-7.
On Tuesday US lawmakers introduced a resolution that would declare the killings of Armenians during World War I as genocide. If passed, the resolution is expected to deliver a major blow to US ties with Turkey, which categorically denies the charges of genocide.
But speaking after meetings with US officials, Davutoglu said he was confident that the administration would not allow the issue to derail the positive change in relations. "All of these things could be debated from a historical perspective, but it should not hijack the strategic vision of Turkish-American relations or Turkish-Armenian relations," he said. He was also confident that the visit will not be affected by this issue. "Nothing can overshadow the success of this visit," he said.
Obama, who called the World War I event genocide while running for office, has not said whether he will support the resolution. He must also decide whether to use the word genocide in his statement commemorating Armenian Remembrance Day on April 24.
Davutoglu said the issue was discussed in his meeting with Jones. When he was asked whether Obama's views might have changed, Davutoglu was noncommittal. "I can't say yes or no," he said. "Of course, I cannot speak on behalf of Gen. Jones, but we went through all these issues in a very friendly and cooperative manner."
White House National Security Council spokesman Mike Hammer declined to comment on what Jones and Davutoglu discussed regarding the Armenian issue. "Our focus is on how, moving forward, the US can help Armenia and Turkey work together to come to terms with the past," he said. "It is important that countries have an open and honest dialogue about the past. At the same time, we want to work closely with both Turkey and Armenia on the key issues that confront the region."
Recognizing how sensitive the issue is for US-Turkish relations, the State Department has avoided comment on the resolution or what the Obama administration's policy is on labeling what happened as genocide. "I don't want to go any further on it until we have had a chance to take a closer look at it and discuss it within the government, and that's where I'm going to leave it," State Department spokesman Robert Wood told reporters on Wednesday.
Congress not to vote soon
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, when asked if it was a good time to bring up the Armenian resolution, reiterated her view that genocide occurred. Whether Obama travels to the region or not "does not deny the fact that there was an Armenian genocide, and there are those of us in Congress who will continue to make that point," the California lawmaker told Reuters.
Pelosi's spokesman, Brendan Daly, said he did not know whether the sponsors of the latest resolution had enough support for it to pass in the House of Representatives, but "no one's talking about a vote any time soon."
Pelosi has been a long-time supporter of having Congress declare the killings to be genocide. But as speaker, she did not bring the resolution to the floor for a vote in 2007 after pressure by the Bush administration, amid concerns over the sensitivities of Turkey.
Davutoglu said he was discussing Turkey's strategic position to cooperate with the United States In key policy areas including peace in the Middle East, Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan. He emphasized that Turkey was also becoming an increasingly important transit point in the region's energy politics. He said the foreign policy priorities of the Obama administration and of Turkey were almost identical.
"Now everyone sees very well that the strategic significance of Turkey has increased and is increasing every day," he also said. The prognosis of improving relations follows tensions during the Bush administration over the Iraq war and Turkish complaints that the US was not doing enough to prevent the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) from launching attacks across Iraq's border.
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
