Ambassador's remarks and public events

Washington Foreign Press Center Briefing With Ambassador Ross Wilson

Topic:  "Recent Developments In U.S.-Turkey Relations"

The Washington Foreign Press Center, Washington, DC
Tuesday, October 3, 2006, 8:30 a.m. EDT

MODERATOR:  I'd like to thank Ambassador Wilson for joining us today.  He'll open with a few comments of his perspective on current U.S.-Turkish relations and then be happy to take your questions.  We have to be out of this room at 9:15.  Ambassador Wilson, thank you. 

AMBASSADOR WILSON:  Good.  Thank you.  Good morning.  Let me commend all of you for being up so early.  What I thought I might do is just begin a little bit of review of the meeting that took place yesterday and then respond to your questions about that and broader issues in U.S.-Turkish relations. 

Yesterday's meeting, as I think both the President and Prime Minister indicated, was an excellent meeting.  It was very warm, it was very cordial, lasted about 1:40 minutes, 1:45 minutes significantly over the scheduled time, I think reflecting certainly the strong interest that President Bush had in continuing the conversation and really working through and talking through fully all of the various subjects that are of interest to our two leaders, to our two countries. 

Terrorism and our common fight against terrorism was one of the main topics of conversation.  Prime Minister Erdogan talked about Turkey's efforts in the fight against terrorism.  He talked about the importance that Turkey attaches to a successful fight against the PKK.  He expressed, I think, some satisfaction or appreciation of the appointment of General Ralston to head up our efforts, U.S. efforts to more effectively act against the PKK. 

On the President's part, he too associated himself with General Ralston's work, said that he believed it was very important, important that it produce results.  And I think it was clear that both leaders, I think, share a common view on the importance of dealing with the PKK in specific and of continuing our broader cooperation in the fight against terrorism.

Iraq was a topic of a fair bit of conversation.  The President reiterated his strong commitment to ensuring that Iraq succeeds.  He expressed appreciation for Turkey's work with us and with the Iraqis toward that end and on behalf of that success.  The Prime Minister talked a little bit about Turkey's efforts, about Turkey's losses, including human losses in Iraq, also talked about Kirkuk and the sensitivity of Kirkuk which the President acknowledged.  And I think both agreed that our countries need to work together to express our views to the sovereign Iraqi authorities as they deal with Kirkuk and decide their way forward on that and on a wide range of other issues. 

Iran was also a lengthy topic of conversation.  The Prime Minister made clear that Turkey has great concerns about the possible development of a nuclear weapon by Iran, has concerns about Iran's nuclear enrichment efforts that it has urged Iran to cooperate fully with the International Atomic Energy Agency and be fully transparent in its nuclear power -- nuclear energy development efforts and to take up the offer on the table that was presented earlier in the summer by the so-called Perm 5+1. 

He also made clear that he believes, that Turkey believes that communication with Iran continues to be important, that Turkey will continue to maintain a channel with Iran and would continue to try to pass the right messages about the need for Turkey's interest in Iran taking onboard the offers that have been made and coming into compliance with its NPT obligations.  The President I think for his part reviewed some of the U.S. concerns and expressed appreciation for Turkey's efforts to date and urged that they continue. 

On The Middle East, again there was a fairly lengthy discussion about issues connected with Israel, Palestine, the Middle East peace process and Syria.  The President stressed the importance of supporting both Prime Minister -- Palestinian President Abbas and Prime Minister Olmert toward a peaceful solution that results in two democratic states living side by side.  The Prime Minister expressed similar views, said that Turkey could be helpful with Prime Minister Olmert, with Abu Mazen and also with Haniyah in support of peace and democracy in the Middle East and that Turkey would continue its efforts toward that end which the President noted. 

On Syria the -- I think both agreed on the importance of doing everything our countries can to support the Lebanese Government of Prime Minister Siniora and doing what we can and, in Turkey's case, doing what it can to encourage Syria to be supportive and not to be detrimental to the further development of democracy and stability in Lebanon. 

On Europe, the President asked Prime Minister Erdogan to describe the state of play with the European Union, which the Prime Minister did.  The President expressed strong support for Turkey's EU accession efforts and indicated that we want to and will try to continue to be as helpful as we can.  The Prime Minister -- for his part recounted some of the recent history that you all, I think, know very well -- thanked the President for U.S. support and expressed appreciation for continued help.  There was also a little bit of a conversation about Cyprus, again the Prime Minister reviewed some of the recent history and indicated that Turkey hopes that the United States will continue to be helpful in dealing with this and the President indicated that the U.S. will do that.

And that at the end there was a 10- or 15-minute conversation about Darfur, something that both leaders, I think, feel very strongly and very emotionally about.  In the meeting just before Prime Minister Erdogan walked into the Oval Office, the President was meeting with Andrew Natsios, his new -- I'm not sure exactly what his title is -- envoy for Sudan for Darfur.  And so Darfur was kind of on the President's mind.  Both of them shared some of their impressions, the Prime Minister some of his impressions of having been in Darfur earlier this year, talked about some of Turkey's efforts to provide assistance there.  The President expressed some frustration that the world is not paying adequate attention to what is going on in Darfur and is not working effectively enough to deal with the situation and he expressed great appreciation for the work that Turkey has done and for the attention that Prime Minister Erdogan has paid.

There are probably a few other things, but I think those are the -- maybe the main highlights.  It was a very good meeting.  I think it helped us significantly in establishing or reestablishing or kind of reenergizing that high level -- a strong and effective high-level dialogue between our two leaders.  They last met on June 8, 2005.  They've talked on the phone at least three times in the intervening 15 months, 14 months or so, including a couple of times in the summer.  And I think that this will help us now.  There are a number of outcomes that I didn't get into in my review here that we can work on in the coming number of months to advance our common interest on issues that we are both concerned about them.

Why don't I stop at that and turn it over to you.

QUESTION:  Do you think (inaudible) review since you said you will get us further questions, I want to ask you something a little broader perhaps.  And also, you know, being encouraged by the President's comments yesterday about the very great support for the EU membership track.  As you know, this visit was somehow overshadowed by the statements made in Turkey, especially the one by chief of staff General Buyukanit. 

First of all, I wanted to ask you -- I wanted to ask you three questions.  They're very short.  I'll just bundled them up in one big thing.  First of all, does the U.S. think there is a chance of radical Islamists taking over, penetrating the state institutions in Turkey?  Secondly, do you see the general (inaudible) statement as a natural expression of their traditional role of safeguarding the republic and (inaudible) in Turkey?  Or is it perhaps overstepping and can create (inaudible) problems for civilian military.  You know, he criticized your EU counterpart (inaudible) very directly General Buyukanit and his comment.  Do you see this as a possible problem with the EU because now there's so much emphasis that the U.S. support for the EU?  And last but not least, there is this rumor of an invitation for General Buyukanit to come to Washington and I understand the invitation is there.  I don't know if he's going to take it up.  And if he comes to town there is also a rumor that he will be given an appointment by Vice President Cheney.  What kind of message would this send?

AMBASSADOR WILSON:  Okay.

QUESTION:  Sorry.  I (inaudible) too many questions, it's just one topic.  I'm sorry. (Laughter.)

AMBASSADOR WILSON:  Well, there are a number of issues that you've addressed and let me try to sort through them as best I can.  I think broadly there are a number of issues here that relate to particular issues in internal Turkish political dynamics that I'm not sure I want to address here, now, this morning, including given the fact that I've not read the remarks of General Buyukanit and -- or President Sezer a day or two earlier. 

I think our view is that Turkey is a strong, stable, secure, secular democracy in a part of the world where many of those things are relatively rare commodities.  They are all central to the relationship that we have with Turkey, the alliance we have with Turkey and the cooperation that we have with Turkey on regional issues with respect to Turkey's development, with respect to European peace and security and frankly broader global peace and security.  And although my perspective as ambassador is there's always a certain amount of cacophony in Turkish domestic politics and in the media.  There's nothing that I see imminently on the horizon that makes me particularly worried about Turkey's status as a strong, secure, stable, secular democracy. 

On -- the second thing I'd say and this is about as far as I want to go with respect to Ambassador (inaudible) remarks and the reactions there.  We attach a lot of importance to democracy around the world.  We attach a lot of importance to democratic institutions and to the accountability of democratic institutions before the electorate and therefore the accountability of government before the electorate.  And so the -- our perspective is that the responsiveness of Turkey's institutions and political institutions, its security institutions and its -- certainly its elected institutions to the electorate is fundamental to the kind of relationship that we have.  And so broadly speaking, the United States has strongly supported the efforts that Turkey has been engaged in at political reform to strengthen its democratic institutions, to open the political process, to open topics for discussion in the political process that have not previously been very much on the agenda.  Those are the right things.  Those are by and large the things that the European Union is working for and we support those efforts.

On General Buyukanit, I think the only thing I can say directly here is that I would expect that General Buyukanit will be invited to the United States at some point.  This is a normal thing.  Our military and Turkey's military and militaries of a lot of countries attach a lot of importance to what we call counterpart visits, visits by respective counterparts.  General Pace was in Turkey in late March.  He had an excellent visit, obviously with General Ozkok.  It is normal for allies to want to, you know, have continued visits of that kind.  When exactly an invitation may be extended, certainly when a visit will be carried out, that's something that others will have to announce at an appropriate time.  But I would expect for it to happen and it befits the kind of alliance that we have.

QUESTION:  But is it normal for him to come and visit the Vice President?

AMBASSADOR WILSON:  I don't know about any other meetings that may be on the agenda or may be anticipated by one party or another.

QUESTION:  (Inaudible) follow up on (inaudible).  Could you give us anything more about how to eliminate PKK?  What kind of cooperation has been agreed on this issue?

AMBASSADOR WILSON:  There's not a lot more I can give you.  I think General Ralston when he was here a week or so ago he talked about -- I think then about some of the ideas, although I believe he was relatively general in the way he addressed that and I'm not sure I can go a whole heck of a lot farther.  I do expect that General Ralston will be back in the region soon within the next couple of weeks to have some further discussions with General Baser and at some point also I think further discussions with his newly named Iraqi counterpart.  That, among other things, will build off of the conversations that General Ralston had in Turkey a couple of weeks ago.  And on the subsequent discussions that have taken place here among policymakers about, you know, what exactly, what concretely we can talk about doing further.

I expect there to be, certainly General Ralston is committed that there will be, effective and visible measures taken with respect to the PKK.  I'm not going to predict what those are.

QUESTION:  A follow-up.

AMBASSADOR WILSON:  Yeah. 

QUESTION:  White House press Secretary Tony Snow said yesterday the two leaders talked about the fact that closing some PKK camps in Iraq.  So is there anything new there?

AMBASSADOR WILSON:  I believe there was a reference by one or the other of the two leaders to the closing of PKK offices and some uncertainties that you're familiar with about whether offices closed actually stayed closed or perhaps reopened somewhere else under a different name or with a different sign on the door.  And as -- but I think the conversation was this is, you know, one of the kinds of things that we are working on and that we need to continue to work on and have our people get together and work through, among other things, so that we can be sure that an office that is supposed to be closed stay closed and that everybody has the same understanding about what happened.

QUESTION:  Thank you.  (Inaudible) with (inaudible).  Good morning, Ambassador.  There was a lot of expectation on the Turkish side that the President is going to say something about the PKK. 

AMBASSADOR WILSON:  He did.

QUESTION:  Is there any reason why he didn't use the words "PKK" in the opening statements?

AMBASSADOR WILSON:  I wouldn't -- I would not attribute a significance to it.  There was an extensive discussion, as I indicated earlier, about the PKK, about the problems that it presents for Turkey, about the President's clear awareness of that.  He referred to the discussions that he had in late June, early July with Prime Minister Erdogan by phone on this subject, and he made clear his strong interest and determination that the United States and Turkey will work together cooperatively, effectively and visibly to deal with this.  The fact that he didn't mention -- the acronym did not come out of his mouth in the brief press statement, I would not attach any significance whatsoever to it.

QUESTION:  (Inaudible) Hurriyet.  Mr. Ambassador, going back to the original question, do you -- by you I mean an institutional you not personally you -- see a problematic (ph) threat in Turkey or not as the Turkish President and the top general does see?

AMBASSADOR WILSON:  I'll give you the same answer I gave the first time.  I don't want to get into an argument with political leaders in Turkey about what's the state of affairs in that country.  We attach a lot of importance to a strong, stable, secure, democratic Turkey.  We believe Turkey is a strong, stable, secure democracy.  And everything that I see as Ambassador there, everything that my Embassy sees there strongly indicates to me that that's where Turkey is, that's where Turkey is headed.

QUESTION:  Thank you.  Can I change the subject and go to Iran?  Nick Burns talked to The Washington Times reporters and editorials yesterday that the deadline for Iran is approaching and it is by the first week of October, which is by the end of this week.  You mentioned that you also talked about Iran extensively with the Turkish Prime Minister.  Can you just, you know, give some feel to what kind of headlines you talked about, like you know, was there any, you know, request on the sanctions; is there any concern on the Turkish side when there was sanctions starting, you know, being implemented; that their trade is going to be impacted or what?  So can you please give us a, you know, broader feel on that?  Thank you.

AMBASSADOR WILSON:  The -- I think -- what to say further.  The Prime Minister made clear that Turkey -- I guess to expand on what I said earlier, that Turkey attaches a lot of importance to the international effort -- the international community's efforts diplomatically or through diplomatic means to try to persuade Iran to change its course.  He made note of Turkish responsibilities as a member of NATO and as a member of the United Nations and I think made clear, as Turkish leaders have on a number of occasions over the last month or two, or if not longer, that Turkey will, with respect to sanctions, will abide by whatever the UN Security Council may decide at some point.  So that's, I think, first.

Second, there was some discussion about -- the President was interested in Prime Minister Erdogan's impressions of Ahmadi-Nejad, of what he wants and where he's headed.  The Prime Minister shared some of those observations based on the various conversations that they -- the two of them -- have had going back over the last year or so at various international meetings.

As I think I indicated, the Prime Minister said that Turkey believes it's important that lines of communication be kept open with the Iranians, that Turkey would keep its lines of communication open with Iran and would try to reinforce the message that we, the Europeans and others are trying to send and some hope that this would be successful in persuading the Iranians to change course.  I think that's about as specific though as I could be.

QUESTION:  What is the impression of Mr. Erdogan of Mr. Ahmadi-Nejad? 

AMBASSADOR WILSON:  I don't want to get too far into that, much further into the details.  I'm sorry. 

QUESTION:  Mr. Ambassador, you said that everything indicates to you that Turkey is there as a strong, stable, secure, democratic status.  The translation of this into normal language is that there's no threat of religious fundamentalism, first, and you're not worried about the military criticism of that situation; you see everything within the normal range of political activities.  Is that right?

AMBASSADOR WILSON:  As I said earlier, there is -- you know, there's always a certain amount of noise in Turkish politics and in Turkish society, and I think that is -- there are a variety of reasons for that that you probably know at least as well as I do.

I continue to be struck by both the political noise that one hears and that one sees and the political activities by a whole wide range of actors in Turkey, including people in the military, and by the strength and resilience of Turkey's institutions to deal effectively with what are very complicated issues as Turkey sorts through what is going to be its future in the 21st century, where is it going to be, what's going to be its relationship with Europe, what's going to be its relationships with its neighbors, what are its relationships to the United States.

I think that's about as far as I want to go.

QUESTION:  One unrelated follow-up.  Unrelated follow-up.  Have you discussed the (inaudible) JSF in any way?  Was there any mention?

AMBASSADOR WILSON:  There was no mention, no Joint Strike Fighter in the meeting with the President.

QUESTION:  Mr. Ambassador, Europe openly criticizes the role of military in politics in Turkey.  As far as I'm concerned, United States keeps relatively silent about it.  Is it because you see European reaction is, you know, too far or is it everything in that so United States doesn't speak too much about it?  (Laughter.)

AMBASSADOR WILSON:  I think I've probably answered that question several times, but I'll take one more stab.  We attach an immense amount of importance to Turkey's status as a democratic country with democratic institutions that are responsible and accountable to the electorate who run the affairs of the country. 

QUESTION:  (Inaudible.)  You support Turkish intention of being member of European Union and you know that (inaudible) General Buyukanit (inaudible) criticized (inaudible).  Ambassador (inaudible), he's a colleague of yours and he is one of the most important diplomats in Turkey and is it true or how do you consider this attitude of the General?  I mean that there -- how -- how much influence they have as part of the influence there will be in the process of Turkey's European membership process and on that (inaudible) in the replacement of the democracy or something (inaudible) and, what do you feel about it? 

AMBASSADOR WILSON:  Since this is the same question going around and around, there's not much more that I can say.  I've not read General Buyukanit's remarks.  I've heard only the briefest of accounts of what exactly he said.  I can't comment much further on that.

AMBASSADOR WILSON:  It would be wrong -- it would --

QUESTION:  He will criticize yourself as a diplomat in Turkey.  What will be your reaction?

AMBASSADOR WILSON:  I'm not going to speculate about that.  It would be wrong to believe that there is a huge difference in perspective between the United States and the European Union about Turkish democracy.  We attach a lot of importance.  It is the bedrock of our relationship with Turkey and we work closely with the government, we work closely with the security forces.  General Buyukanit is a friend of the United States.  We will work closely with him.  We will work closely with his successor, just as we worked closely with General Ozkok. 

QUESTION:  Ambassador, (inaudible) was back from (inaudible).  Did the energy security come up in the meetings?

AMBASSADOR WILSON:  There was no explicit or direct conversation about energy.  I suppose you could say it was indirectly referred to in some remarks about Turkey's economic accomplishments and success in handling -- in coming out of the financial crisis of several years ago and dealing effectively with the sort of mini financial crisis earlier this year, and so the word "energy" probably got mentioned there somewhere but not in the sense that you've referred to.

QUESTION:  Thank you.  Stability and security in Iraq is very close to the heart of President Bush. 

AMBASSADOR WILSON:  Sorry?

QUESTION:  Stability and security in Iraq is very close to the heart of President Bush.  When he met with the Turkish Prime Minister, was there in, you know, in some sense a dialogue in terms of that, you know, he wanted to hear from the Turkish side what can be done to help provide that stability and security, especially when it comes to Turkey's relations with the Sunnis?

AMBASSADOR WILSON:  I think the best way to answer this is generally, and that is to say that in all of this conversation that took place yesterday President Bush was very interested in hearing Prime Minister Erdogan's perspective, in consulting with him on the way forward and ways both of which our two countries can cooperate together but also the way forward more generally, whether the subject is Iraq or Iran or the Middle East or any of these others. 

And so in that connection, yes of course the President was interested to hear some of the Prime Minister's thoughts about the way forward.  That I think was the spirit in which the conversation about Kirkuk took place.  It was a consultative meeting, two leaders who share broadly speaking a common vision talking about the way forward in a complicated part of the world. 

QUESTION:  (Inaudible) Radio.  Mr. Bush stressed that the United States is supporting the membership of Turkey to the European Union.  In the past there were several other declarations that way and every time there was a sentiment in Europe, a negative sentiment against the United States and also against Turkey.  Why do you believe it is still useful for this matter, to express it that openly? 

AMBASSADOR WILSON:  Well, the President noted in the meeting, and other American leaders have made this observation as well, that we don't have a vote in the European Union process.  We're not there, we're not at the table, and I'm not sure we particularly want a place at that table.  It is a fact that the United States for decades has supported Turkey's integration into European institutions.  For many, many years it has backed Turkey's efforts to initiate the accession process.  Frankly speaking, had we not reiterated that support for Turkey, people would have taken notice of that.  Oh, the United States has abandoned Turkey's efforts to join the European Union.  Quite the contrary, we have not.  It is a topic fundamentally that Turkey and our allies in Europe have got to work through, you know, in the context of the EU-Turkey negotiations.  We want to be as helpful as we can both with Turkey and with our European friends and allies.

QUESTION:  A follow-up, please.  Mr. Ambassador, many observers are worried (inaudible) on Cyprus might lead to a train wreck in EU-Turkish negotiations, full membership negotiations.  Are you as much worried that might happen?  And what does the U.S. do to prevent that outcome from happening?

AMBASSADOR WILSON:  Well, we -- clearly the Cyprus problem's got a lot of different aspects to it.  We have felt and we feel now that issues that ought to be resolved and that will ultimately have to be resolved in the United Nations' context is part of an overall settlement.  The Cyprus dispute should not unduly hinder or block the -- block Turkey's EU accession efforts particularly at this stage of the process as things are basically still getting started.

And so we and the Europeans and others have exchanged a number of ideas about ways to help ensure or create a situation in which these, what are basically final settlement issues, do not unduly impact on the EU accession process.  There have been a number of talks over the last several weeks about some of these ideas.  And I guess to conclude, we support efforts to try to find a way to deal with Cyprus matters in the Turkey-EU context in a way that allows the accession talks to go forward and that doesn't unduly prejudice or prejudge what really are final settlement issues that have got to be dealt with in the UN context.

QUESTION:  Mr. Ambassador, I understand, and correct me if I'm wrong, the President was interested in hearing from the Prime Minister yesterday the reasons behind the rising anti-American sentiment in Turkey.  And I understand that Prime Minister (inaudible) the status basically because of the PKK and, you know, the inability so far to deal with the PKK in northern Iraq in more radical terms.  Does this explanation satisfy the President and the U.S. Government do you think or do you think there's more to it?

AMBASSADOR WILSON:  I think the best way to answer your question is that the conversation -- there was a brief conversation about anti-Americanism in the -- in Turkey.  It was more complicated than you have just described.  The Prime Minister created a -- I think an interesting and useful picture for the President who asked, who said tell me about anti-Americanism.  Why is this an issue?  Where does it come from?  What causes this?  It was a good discussion and I think it was helpful to the President, it was helpful to us as we try to sort our way forward.

QUESTION:  What you have mentioned in that context?

AMBASSADOR WILSON:  Of course, it was.

QUESTION:  Although you don't like the term ceasefire in the case of the PKK because it implies a deal between equals or whatever, apart from this are you happy with the PKK ceasefire because it could lead to a diminution in violence?

AMBASSADOR WILSON:  Well, I think General Ralston addressed this a week ago.  I don't want to go too much beyond what he said. 

QUESTION:  There was no ceasefire at the time.  Now there is discussion about it.

AMBASSADOR WILSON:  There was discussion about it.  And I think it was a prospective conversation.  The word "cease" is not the worst word in the world.  I mean it's better than many of the alternatives.

There is a long history of PKK "ceasefires" that were more declaratory than they were real.  What we want -- General Ralston was very clear on this -- what we want to see is not a ceasefire.  We want to see the PKK lay down its arms, cease to function, stop and be done.  That's the goal.

By its very definition, a ceasefire is temporary and at least in some respects is presumably between, you know, something that happens between two parties.  That's not what we're looking for. We're looking for a permanent laying down of arms, a permanent cessation of violent terrorist activities, murder extortion, other actions that are harmful to Turkey, they are harmful to Europe, they are harmful to Iraq.

QUESTION:  Thank you.  Two quick questions.  First off, do you think that PKK is strong enough to pose a threat to Turkey's territorial integrity?

Second off, do you think Turkey is likely to do a cross-border operation?

AMBASSADOR WILSON:  On the first question, no.  On the second question, that's something you're going to have to address to the Turkish authorities.  What we are working, what General Ralston is working on with General Baser and now at some point soon with the Iraqi counterpart is to work cooperatively to deal with the PKK problem.  General Ralston was very clear in saying no option is off the table.  But I think the thrust of what we are trying to do is to find a way, is to find effective and visible ways that we can take steps, United States and Turkey, maybe United States and Iraq, United States Turkey and Iraq, to deal with the PKK problem.

QUESTION:  Thank you.

QUESTION:  Mr. Ambassador, how can Turkey play as an example, and a model role on the Broader Middle East project?  What are the U.S. expectations on this project?

AMBASSADOR WILSON:  Well, one thing I would say kind of emphatically is that Prime Minister Erdogan reiterated yesterday his support and Turkey's support for democracy and market economic development in the broader Middle East, Darfur by extension, the Broader Middle East, North Africa initiative.

My perspective is that Turkey is a kind of an example to other countries particularly in the region and particularly under other countries that have a majority of Muslim population.  It -- more specifically it has hosted a number of useful meetings, a number of useful kind of workshops, other projects among the various countries participating in the BMENA initiative to strengthen civil society, to strengthen democratic institutions, to strengthen market economic development in countries where those things are somewhat rarer commodities than they are in Turkey.

MODERATOR:  Okay, last question, Ali.

QUESTION:  Mr. Ambassador, sorry for giving you some trouble by asking too many questions on Turkish domestic politics.  I'll give you an easy shot.  It might be easier for you to criticize the French rather than the Turkish military.  (Laughter.)

The question is on President Chirac's comment in which he said Armenian genocide should be a precondition for Turkey to be a full member.  What is your reaction?

AMBASSADOR WILSON:  Well, first, I don't know exactly what Prime Minister Chirac said.  Our position on the issue has been clearly stated.  Every year on or about April 24th or so on the anniversary of Armenian Remembrance Day our perspective on the broader problem, our strong belief in the importance of reconciliation between Turkey and Armenia and the people of Turkey and Armenia and the need for historians, not politicians, to deal with what is a very complicated issue.  How Turkey and the EU sort this out is something that Turkey and the EU are going to have to sort out.  Our view I think is pretty clear.

MODERATOR:  One last one for Adrienne* because she --

QUESTION:  Okay.  Just very quickly, (inaudible) the question.  Did they ever mention -- especially the Prime Minister -- said anything about any domestic issue that's going on in the United States since a lot is going on in the Republican Party?

AMBASSADOR WILSON:  I don't think the Prime Minister said anything about those.

 

MODERATOR:  Thank you all.