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Nicholas Burns, #3 at State Dept. and hawk on Iran, resigns.
Here's a recent quote from Mr. Burns re: the passage of U.S. resolutions recognizing the Armenian genocide.
Statements by U.S. Officials
Nicholas Burns, US Department of State Under Secretary for Political Affairs,
Speaking to press following a meeting with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
Ankara, September 19, 2007
Under Secretary Burns: Good Afternoon. Ambassador Wilson and I have just had an excellent meeting with Prime Minister Erdogan and we conveyed to the Prime Minister the friendship and best respects of President Bush. We said that it's our President's strong wish, our government's strong wish that we now strengthen our relationship with Turkey for the period ahead. In that respect we said that we will continue to support very strongly Turkey's prospects for accession, full accession, to the European Union. And we will continue to give strong support to Turkey's effort to combat the PKK. We very much sympathize with the Turkish people and the Turkish government that PKK actions against Turkey must be stopped. We condemn the latest PKK action, which again has taken an innocent Turkish life. We also assured the Prime Minister that the US government will continue to oppose any resolution in the United States Congress on Armenian genocide. Finally, we had a very good discussion about the intention of the United States government to try to obviously increase trade and invest with Turkey and to work with Turkey for the effort to find peace between Israel and the Palestinians – an issue in which Secretary Rice is engaged today in Israel itself.
We Americans have an excellent relationship with the government of Turkey. We consider Turkey to be a great friend and ally of our country. We look forward to strengthening that relationship and I think you'll see a lot of activity, many high level meetings between our governments to do that in the months ahead.
Thank you very much.
And, another
After the vote, the US Undersecretary of State, Nicholas Burns, told the BBC that the Bush administration was "deeply disappointed".
"The United States recognizes the immense suffering of the Armenian people due to mass killings and forced deportations at the end of the Ottoman Empire," he said.
"We support a full and fair accounting of the atrocities that befell as many as 1.5m Armenians during World War I, which House Resolution 106 does not do."
Here's a recent quote from Mr. Burns re: the passage of U.S. resolutions recognizing the Armenian genocide.
Statements by U.S. Officials
Nicholas Burns, US Department of State Under Secretary for Political Affairs,
Speaking to press following a meeting with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
Ankara, September 19, 2007
Under Secretary Burns: Good Afternoon. Ambassador Wilson and I have just had an excellent meeting with Prime Minister Erdogan and we conveyed to the Prime Minister the friendship and best respects of President Bush. We said that it's our President's strong wish, our government's strong wish that we now strengthen our relationship with Turkey for the period ahead. In that respect we said that we will continue to support very strongly Turkey's prospects for accession, full accession, to the European Union. And we will continue to give strong support to Turkey's effort to combat the PKK. We very much sympathize with the Turkish people and the Turkish government that PKK actions against Turkey must be stopped. We condemn the latest PKK action, which again has taken an innocent Turkish life. We also assured the Prime Minister that the US government will continue to oppose any resolution in the United States Congress on Armenian genocide. Finally, we had a very good discussion about the intention of the United States government to try to obviously increase trade and invest with Turkey and to work with Turkey for the effort to find peace between Israel and the Palestinians – an issue in which Secretary Rice is engaged today in Israel itself.
We Americans have an excellent relationship with the government of Turkey. We consider Turkey to be a great friend and ally of our country. We look forward to strengthening that relationship and I think you'll see a lot of activity, many high level meetings between our governments to do that in the months ahead.
Thank you very much.
And, another
After the vote, the US Undersecretary of State, Nicholas Burns, told the BBC that the Bush administration was "deeply disappointed".
"The United States recognizes the immense suffering of the Armenian people due to mass killings and forced deportations at the end of the Ottoman Empire," he said.
"We support a full and fair accounting of the atrocities that befell as many as 1.5m Armenians during World War I, which House Resolution 106 does not do."
