Journal of Turkish Weekly
Sept 14 2005
Armenian bills could damage US-Turkish relations
Brent Scowcroft warns: Armenian genocide bills could damage
US-Turkish relations
source: Hurriyet, 14 September 2005
Brent Scowcroft, president of the American-Turkish Council (ATC), has
written a letter to US Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert warning of
possible damage to US-Turkish relations resulting from two seperate
bills containing Armenian genocide allegations coming up on the US
Congress agenda.
It is expected that the US Congress Foreign Relations Committee will
be looking at the two bills in question either today or tomorrow. It
is also anticipated that the bills will pass through the Committee
successfully. Scowcroft warned in his letter that the passage of
these bills might well endanger the trade interests of some ATC
members.
Scowcroft also called on Armenian President Robert Kocharian to
accept the peace offering of Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan. He also
used his letter to call on the US to be supportive of Turkey in this
period preceding the October 3 EU accession talks, recalling that
Turkey’s strategic placement would be important to the US for a long
period of time.