The Turkish ambassador to the United States has said that he will return to Turkey on Friday by decision of the government in Ankara.
Tan’s remarks came after the US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee passed a resolution recognizing the killing of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire as ’genocide’.
’I will consult my government, and you will see how and when I’ll return after I have got the necessary instructions and according to the course of events,’ he told a press conference in Washington, DC.
Tan expressed his deep sorrow at the adoption of the resolution.
’What we lost today is also a way from being a victory for the other side,’ he said.
Also speaking at the press conference, Sukru Elekdag, a lawmaker from the Republican People’s Party (CHP), said, ’They won by only one vote, so I think they have not won in a proud way and have lost much of their prestige, esteem and pride.’
Elekdag said the US administration had not strongly objected to the resolution. ’If the administration had extended a little bit more support to us, this resolution would have been prevented,’ he said.
Elekdag said it was wrong to react and flare up instantly.
Mithat Melen of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) was another Turkish lawmaker who travelled to the United States to lobby against the resolution. Melen said Turkey should not ’take urgent decisions’, but ’should decide after thinking calmly and without exaggerating the situation’.
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