ANKARA (Hurriyet)–Two groups of Turkish parliamentarians will visit Washington, D.C., to lobby against a House Resolution recognizing the Armenian Genocide to be voted on by the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs on March 4.
Members of the Turkish Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee and the Turkey-U.S. Parliamentary Friendship Group are expected to lobby in the U.S. capital starting March 1.
Suat Kiniklioglu, the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) vice president for foreign relations, described the upcoming vote as “a misfortune” showing “lack of foresight” while the normalization processes between Turkey and Armenia is still underway.
“The Armenian Diaspora in the U.S. attempted [to pass this bill] in 2007, but failed. The bill was passed through the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs, but failed to pass in Congress,” Kiniklioglu told reporters. “We are planning to prevent the bill’s ratification by the committee. In case of failure, we will attempt [to lobby] Congress to not vote for this bill.”
The AKP official called the timing of the vote “absurd and inappropriate” in regard to existing Turkey-U.S. relations. “We hope our efforts will prevent this risky attempt, which may damage bilateral relations,” he said. “We act in unity as government, opposition and NGOs in the U.S.”
If this is not interfering with internal affairs of another country, I don’t know what else is.
Turkey is acting like a spoiled child that is not liked at all by anybody. By them coming all the way from Turkey to effect U.S. policy is direct interference with affairs of U.S., the world’s superpower. How dare they?
But what we Armenians can do?. First, call your congresman, specially if he/she is on the foreign affaires committee.California Armenians take note of Ms Harman. Also,for those who give up to Turkish presssures with no shame or pride, then the November elections are coming soon to keep score.Thanks all
What we as Armenians should plan on now is to flood the US Newsmedia with letters to the editor…also a public relations campaign should be instituted…ads taken out in all the major US nespapers and magazines as well as tv and radio stations…we can make this happen…