speeches

Remarks by Ambassador Eric Edelman Following a Meeting with Foregin Minister Gul

Foreign Ministry, Ankara, May 26, 2005

Ambassador Edelman: I just have a few words to say. I’m really not going to take any questions because I have to go off to another meeting. But I just had an opportunity to pay my respects and a farewell call on the Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Abdullah Gul. We had a chance to review the two years of work that I did here together with colleagues in the Foreign Ministry on a variety of issues of importance to both countries, including the future of Iraq, which is very important for both the United States and for Turkey. We talked about the question of Cyprus, and the effort to find a just and lasting settlement to the conflict there, and reviewed the work we did along with our colleagues in the U.K. and the United Nations a year ago on that subject. We also reviewed the work that led to the landmark decision of the European Union to give a date of October 3 for the beginning of accession talks for Turkey to enter the European Union, which has been an important strategic objective for Turkey, but also an important objective of the United States of America for 40 years. I was very glad to have a chance to review all of that with him, and also to thank all of his colleagues here in the Foreign Ministry, who have shown enormous courtesy to me and to my wife while we’ve been here and have worked together with me and my colleagues in an extraordinarily professional way that has made my time here a pleasure. So thank you all very much, and I’m sure I’ll be seeing some of you later. Goodbye.