WASHINGTON (AA) - The Subcommittee on Europe and Emerging Threats under the International Relations Committee at the U.S. House of Representatives held on Wednesday a session on ``the situation of Turkish-U.S. relations``.
Zeyno Baran, the Turkey expert of the U.S. think-tank ``Nixon Center``; Soner Cagaptay, the Turkey expert of the ``Washington Institute``; professor Henry Barkey of the Lehigh University and Mark Parris, one of former U.S. ambassadors to Turkey, attended the session chaired by Elton Gallegly, the chairman of the Subcommittee on Europe and Emerging Threats.
Addressing the opening remarks of the meeting, Gallegly said that some problems had to be seen in Turkish-U.S. relations recently.
Gallegly expressed concern over these problems, and said that his concerns started after the Turkish parliament did not approve opening of a front from Turkey for the Iraq War in 2003.
Elton Gallegly showed developments in Iraq, and ``the situation of Kurds in the new federal government of Iraq`` as ``potential issues`` which might cause a dispute between Turkey and the United States.
On the other hand, Robert Wexler of Democrat Party recalled that Turkey was leading the peace force in Afghanistan (the International Security and Assistance Force), and said that these realities should not be ignored.
Wexler said, ``we should respect the differences between us, and we should not forget that there are many things uniting us. The United States doesn`t have any bigger friend than Turkey to defend freedoms in the region.``
Meanwhile, Zeyno Baran said that wrong diplomatic steps taken by the two countries had caused the recent problems.
Baran stated that presence of PKK terrorists in the north of Iraq, under the responsibility of the Americans, caused concerns in Turkey, while the United States thought that Turkey had not fulfilled its responsibilities to contribute to the success of the military alliance against the ousted Saddam Hussein regime.
Noting that Turkish officials wanted a robust partnership with the United States, Baran said that progress should be made regarding the terrorist organization PKK to further improve bilateral relations between Turkey and the United States.
Baran proposed Turkish, U.S. and Iraqi governments to meet for a solution to PKK problem acceptable for all the parties.
Also speaking in the meeting, Cagaptay underlined importance of steps to be taken by the United States regarding the PKK and Cyprus problems to better bilateral relations between Turkey and the United States, while Parris said that problems between Turkey and the United States mostly stemmed from developments in Iraq and suggested the parties to enhance dialogue.
2005-05-11