390) Armenian conference and bill in September -Gila BENMAYOR

If my memory is not playing tricks on me, a similar resolution was submitted during Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s visit to Washington in June, and a minor crisis ensued.

 

  I met U.S. Consul General in Istanbul Deborah Jones at a Turkish-American Business Council (TAİK) reception the other night. Jones was appointed to the post upon the departure of David Arnett.

 

  Jones is very knowledgeable about the Middle East.

 

  She speaks Arabic well because she worked in Baghdad and Damascus. At the reception I also talked to the congressional staffers who were invited to Turkey as part of a program sponsored by TAİK and its American counterpart, the American-Turkish Council (ATC).

 

  I would like to talk about this program.

 

  Unfortunately, most American congressmen and their staffers know almost nothing about Turkey.

 

  Turkey, for them, is a country at the opposite end of the world.

 

  Even though they know nothing about it, they draft many bills that affect Turkey.

 

  This is why it is very important and beneficial for TAİK and the ATC to invite a delegation from Congress from time to time in order to let them see Istanbul, İzmir and Ankara and to meet with representatives from nongovernmental organizations.

 

  Just as TAİK President Yılmaz Argüden said, there is a considerable disparity between what those who come to Turkey hear and what they see.

 

  In the past three years, TAİK has welcomed around 90 congressional staffers.

 

  If we return to the reception the other night, everyone I talked to confirmed Argüden's assessment.

 

  “We never expected Turkey to be like this,â€� some said.

 

  I should also note that those I spoke with had visited Bodrum.

 

  There was, of course, some congressional gossip making the rounds, and we learned that a resolution on the Armenian genocide allegations would be submitted to the House of Representatives in September.

 

  If my memory is not playing tricks on me, a similar resolution was submitted during Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's visit to Washington in June, and a minor crisis ensued.

 

  The timing of the bill is very interesting because the Armenian conference at Boğaziçi University that was postponed last May will now be held in September.

 

  The exact date the resolution will be submitted is not yet known, but the conference will be held on Sept. 23.

 

  I believe both happening in the same month is very unfortunate.

 

  Unfortunately, most of the nation has negative views on the conference due to the mistaken interpretations of the conference in the media.

 

  If the resolution is submitted to the House at the same time, public reaction may grow.

 

  In summary, some very important developments will happen on the Armenian problem in September.

 

 

Saturday, August 27, 2005  TurkishDailyNews