ANKARA - U.S. Ambassador in Ankara Eric Edelman said on Monday that Turkish-U.S. relations were going through a very difficult period and stated that they were working for re-settlement of cooperation.
International Defense Industry Aerospace and Maritime Fair (IDEF) Symposium 2003 organized by cooperation of National Defense Ministry and the Foundation for Strengthening Turkish Armed Forces started at Ankara's Bilkent Hotel.
Delivering a speech in the symposium, Edelman said Turkey was very important for the United States, stressing that a strong Turkey was important for the region. He said they wanted to support Turkey to fulfill its targets, and noted that this was important for the interests of United States.
Edelman said U.S. was ready to cooperate with all the countries in the world to fight against terrorism after September 11 terrorist attacks, stating that September 11 attacks changed point of view of the United States against the world. He said their target was to cooperate with the whole world on this issue.
Edelman said Turkey was a country which suffered a lot from terrorism, and that Turkey always expended support to United States in international arena in fight against terrorism. He said Turkish forces recorded success in efforts carried out for peace and stability.
Edelman said that the United States was always interested in the Middle East to provide peace and stability in the world and stated that they wanted the road map to be put into practice as soon as possible for Israeli and Palestinian peoples to live together freely.
Stating that if terrorist activities ended, the United States was ready to work with a powerful Palestinian Prime Minister, Edelman said that Turkey's friendship with Israel was also very important on that point.
Stating that they attributed great importance to territorial integrity of Iraq, Edelman said that they wanted to contribute to commercial relations of Iraq with its neighbor countries.
Edelman said that what the United States was doing now was to eradicate terrorists from Iraq and stated that they would stay there till a government which was elected came to the power and democratic order was installed in Iraq.
Edelman said that Syria caused some problems in fight against terrorism and added that Syria opened its border to terrorists. He added he thought that the pressure imposed on Syria should be increased.
Concerning the Cyprus issue, Edelman said that a historical opportunity was missed in Cyprus and stated that peoples of the two countries wanted to live together. Edelman said that Denktas should not prevent it and stated that a solution should be found before Greek Cypriot side joined the EU. He added that there was little time left.
Edelman said that they wanted Turkey to open its Armenian border as soon as possible and called Armenia to recognize Turkey.
Edelman said that problems which the world faced were intensified in the region where Turkey was located and stated that they should take measures for it.
Stating that Turkish-U.S. relations were going through a very difficult period, Edelman said that they were working for re-settlement of cooperation. Edelman said that Turkey's role was very important to bring peace and stability to the Middle East and added that the decision on this issue only belonged to Turkey.
(AY-EÖ-AÖ) 29.09.2003