ANKARA - Justice Minister Cemil Cicek said on Tuesday that Turkey wished the continuation of its relations with the U.S., adding that ''we have difficulty in explaining the reason of the last incident, and we have difficulty in accepting its result.''
Justice Minister Cicek responded to questions of journalists after his meeting with U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Robert Pearson. Upon a question, Cicek said that there had been certain points of fragmentation in the 50-year relations between Turkey and the U.S. from time to time, adding that generally speaking the relations were in line with the interests of both sides.
The last incident showed Turkey was right in its concerns about Iraq, adding that ''overthrowing Saddam regime is an important step, but no state authority has been installed in the region yet. There is no operating state structure. This creates an atmosphere suitable for different plans and tricks. We wish the steps taken had earlier been taken. Because Turkey wished solution of certain problems that could come out through negotiations... It is not possible for us to accept the last incident.''
Cicek said that they wished continuation of the relations with the U.S., adding that the direction of the relation had to be confirmed and supported by other efforts. ''The most important leg of that is the bill on so-called genocide. Such kind of bills were not adopted by the U.S. Congress in the past. This is an historic incident and we should not take political decisions about historical incidents. Turkey attributes importance to the voting to take place in the U.S. Congress,'' Cicek said.
When a reporter said that General Staff expected an excuse from the U.S. regarding the last incident, Cicek said that there were certain steps that needed to be taken and that they attributed importance to the result of the voting in the U.S. Congress. Cicek said that the negotiations held in Kirkuk would clarify some points.
When reporters asked how Pearson assessed the detention of Turkish soldiers, Cicek said Pearson noted that Turkish-American relations would go better. Cicek said ''we were not in a position of defending our views, we did an assessment within the scope of a courtesy visit.''
(Öª-AÖ) 08.07.2003