Turkish Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Feridun Sinirlioğlu arrived in Washington on Monday for a series of talks with US officials on bilateral ties between Turkey and the United States.
The undersecretary is set for a series of meetings with officials at the US State Department and the National Security Council. Sinirlioğlu will focus on bilateral ties between the two countries as well as international issues during his talks. Diplomatic sources say the undersecretary will not focus on any single issue during his meetings but will discuss many recent developments, including those in the Caucasus and the Balkans.
The visit has come shortly after Rep. Howard Berman of California, the Democratic chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, said last week that he intended to call a committee vote on March 4 on a non-binding resolution that would call on President Barack Obama to ensure that US policy formally refers to the killings of Armenians in Anatolia during World War I as “genocide” and to use that term when he delivers his annual message on the issue in April -- something Obama avoided doing last year.
The Turkish diplomat is expected to express Turkey’s concerns over the planned vote during his visit. Sinirlioğlu will meet with the US special envoy for Eurasian energy affairs, Ambassador Richard Morningstar, US Deputy Secretary of State James B. Steinberg and Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Philip H. Gordon. He is set to return to Turkey on Wednesday evening.
The undersecretary is accompanied by Namik Tan, the new Turkish ambassador to Washington. Tan will officially assume office after presenting his credentials.
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