Ambassador's remarks & public events

Remarks Made by Ambassador Ross Wilson After a Meeting With Minister of Health Recep Akdag at the Ministry of Health

Ankara, January 19, 2006

Ambassador Wilson: Good afternoon. I’ve just finished a very useful, lengthy and detailed meeting with Minister of Health Akdag.  Obviously the subject of conversation was Avian Influenza and the efforts of the authorities of Turkey are making to control this problem.

The minister reviewed in some detail the actions that the government has taken. We talked a little bit about the coordination committee that has been set up by the Ministries of Health and Agriculture, and also the meeting that the Governor will have tomorrow with Governors from around all the various parts of Turkey.

I took this opportunity to brief the Minister and to introduce him to members of a US Government team that arrived in Turkey on January 17, which includes representatives of our Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Agriculture, the Department of State and the Centers for Disease Control.

This team has had very good and productive meetings over the last couple of days in Ankara and in the area of Ankara. They have been very impressed with the actions that the Government has taken and the effective steps that are clearly bringing this problem more under control.

This team will be traveling to the far eastern parts of Turkey over the course of the next couple of days. From there they will visit the three Caucasus countries of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia. They will return to Turkey later next week to provide a summary of their findings both with respect to Turkey and the Caucasus.

Our assessment is that Turkey is playing a very important role both in helping to control on a local level this global problem and to provide extremely important lessons that will help other countries in the region and elsewhere in the world to cope with this terrible global issue.

A point I made in particular to the Minister is that this Ministry as well as the Ministry of Agriculture have provided outstanding leadership for the people of Turkey in getting a handle on all of the important details, getting a handle on this situation and engineering effective measures to bring the problem under control.

Question: What are the other contributions that the U.S. will make to Turkey regarding Avian Influenza?

Ambassador Wilson: Well, we talked here about a number of ways in which the United States can help. This minister identified a number of areas, particularly in the area of laboratories and diagnostic capabilities here.

But the purpose of this mission was to and is to asses the situation, to learn some lessons for Turkey, for the international community, and for other countries that face this problem and also to make recommendations to me and to Washington about what would be the appropriate kinds of assistance or support that we can provide here, and that we can provide in the Caucasus.

Question: Do you have any information about the vaccine Russia has developed regarding this disease?

Ambassador Wilson: I have no information about it. It is possible some of our medical experts do, but, no, I’m sorry I don’t.

Question: Is the team going to have any recommendations for the Turkish Government?

Ambassador Wilson: I think there may be some recommendation for the Turkish Government. I think the main thing, the main assessment is that Turkey has done a very good job and that we can take advantage of that good experience to help educate other countries that are now facing or will in the future face this problem and that can inform the way the international community responds to Avian Influenza and, for that matter, other pandemics as they occur in the future.

Thank you.