STATEMENTS BY U.S. OFFICIALS

Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA)
Answers Questions from the Press following Meetings at the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Ankara, August 24, 2007

Senator Specter:  I have been meeting with members of the Turkish Foreign Ministry and the principal subject has been Iraq. We will be awaiting the report of General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker to see what is happening in Iraq by mid-September and unless there is a light at the end of the tunnel, some tangible progress, I think it is very doubtful that the Congress of the United States will continue to appropriate funds. 

We appropriated $100 billion last April and the sentiment was pretty explicit that we expected some results.  It is not sufficient to have only military results. There have to be political results. And we have been very disappointed with the failure of the Iraqi parliament to come together to solve some of the basic issues which confront the nation. For example, it would have been our expectation that when it comes to dividing the proceeds from the oil -- Iraq has billions of dollars of potential in oil -- that the Sunnis, the Shiites and the Kurds would have been able to come to agreement. But there have not been any benchmarks met, set by the President, and unless we see something very tangible it is very difficult to see how the additional funding is going to be provided.

Let me expand upon that just a little in terms of the political situation in the United States.  Last November there was an election when the Democrats took over on both the House of Representatives and the United States Senate. And that was done in a context of voter…American dissatisfaction with the war in Iraq. And when the issue came up in April, I joined a majority of my colleagues in saying, let's give it another chance, with the surge, when we put up a $100 billion to see what would happen by mid-September.  The political reality is that the Democrats are united in opposing a continuation of the war and you have some Republicans moving away from continuing support. Senator Warner, who is the former Chairman of the Armed Services Committee, came back from Iraq a few days ago and said there ought to be staged withdrawal, called on President Bush to undertake that. So it is my hope that the Iraqis, mainly the Shiites and the Sunnis, will understand that if there are no tangible results, and I again refer to the example of a light at the end of the tunnel, that American presence and American funding of the war is not limitless.

If you have a question, I'd be glad to respond.

Question:  Senator, I have a question about the Jewish community's decision to support the so-called Armenian genocide. We were wondering if this reflects US policy as a whole or if this is just the community's own decision.

Senator Specter: Well I am aware that the US Anti-Defamation League has taken a stand to identify the incidents of 1915 as genocide. There is a resolution in the House of Representatives; I think a companion resolution in the Senate. That is a subject which I discussed with representatives of the Turkish government. There is as yet no policy by the Congress. There may be a vote coming up in the future.  It is something that I will take a very close look at and study. I understand the implications for the Turkish-United States relations and I only found out about it earlier today and it is something which I will look at very closely and I'm sure my colleagues will as well. We will not be rushing to judgment on any matter as serious as this issue.

Question: What's your personal opinion about it? Is it a reflection of the relations of Turkey with neighbor countries, for example with Iran? Does it have any connection…

Senator Specter: My personal opinion on what?

Question: About the Armenian conflict – the changing of the policy of the Jewish people in the United States.

Senator Specter: Well, I do not know and it’s not the Jewish people in the United States. The Anti-Defamation League, the ADL, does not speak for the Jewish people of the United States. They do not speak for the United States. They speak for that one organization. It is an important organization, but we have a lot of important organizations in the United States. And what are my personal views? I want to see what they've done, what their reason is and to evaluate very carefully what has been said. Why now is this matter being re-raised? We considered it many years ago in the Congress and I want to take a look at it.  I'm not going to render an opinion standing on one foot in a news conference.

Question: At the beginning of August, Maliki was here and there was a Memorandum of Understanding signed between Iraq and Turkey. What are you opinions about that?

Senator Specter: A Memorandum of Understanding between Iraq and Turkey…I'd have to read the Memorandum to give you any views on it. I can tell you what my views are about the United States policy. I'm a United States Senator, I can tell you about that but I'd have to take a look at the document before commenting on that.

Thank you all very much.