March 10, 2005 - 08:49 AMT
US CONGRESS PASSING ARMENIAN GENOCIDE RESOLUTION TO ADD FUEL TO FIRE OF ANTI-AMERICAN AND NATIONALIST MOODS IN TURKEY
Head of the Project for Transitional Democracies Bruce Jackson has stated that the US should discuss issues with Turkey relating to the Armenian Genocide in 1915. «The fact that mentioning of the campaign of the Armenian Genocide committed by the official Ottoman authorities cause resentment of Turkish officials does not at all mean that historical issues should not be discussed by democratic partners,» he stated. Bruce Jackson also noted that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan «has refused from talks with Armenia over lifting of the blockade of the Armenian border, thus creating an obstacle on the way of peaceful settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict.» «In spite of the confirmation of the European fate of Turkey, it is evident that the crisis of the national and geo-political identity in Turkey is far from its completion,» he emphasized. In his turn Director of Energy and International Security Programs of the Nixon Center Zeyno Baran noted that «taking into account the opinion spread in Turkey that the US holds an anti-Turkish campaign, the US Congress passing «an Armenian Resolution» this year might cause destructive consequences.» «Such a resolution will add fuel to the fire of anti-American and nationalist moods in Turkey and will have a negative impact on the establishment of Armenian-Turkish relations,» she noted.