Wolfowitz: Convince Damascus, Let’s Look Ahead

The issue was on the agenda during the eight-deputy delegation of the Turkish Parliamentary Democracy Delegation’s Washington contacts. According to the information received, meeting with Turkish parliamentarians, the US Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz sent the message: "If your relations with Syria are on good terms, we request you use this position to convince Syria to withdraw its troops from Lebanon. Let’s look towards the future." The US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, on the other hand, surprised everyone when he entered the room and joined the meeting.

The Turkish delegation consisting of five Justice and Development Party (AKP) and three Republican People’s Party (CHP) deputies attended meetings in Washington that included a meeting with Paul Wolfowitz.

According to reports, the US-Turkey relations were at the table, and indicated that the problems resulting from the March 1 deployment motion, that was not passed in the Turkish Parliament, was overcome, and Wolfowitz signaled: "Let’s look to the future."

Within this framework, Wolfowitz brought the recent developments regarding Syria to the agenda. When the Turkish parliamentarians expressed: "Turkey attaches great importance to its relations with regional countries and has good relations with its neighbors." The US Deputy Secretary of Defense replied: "There are issues that we can handle together as friends and allies. If your relations with Syria are on good terms, we request you use this position to convince Syria to withdraw its troops from Lebanon. You must convince Syria. "

Meeting with officials from the US Department of State and the Presidency, the Turkish delegation communicated to Washington, "one of the major reasons of anti-Americanism in Turkey is the continued existence of the terrorist organization Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) in northern Iraq. The parliamentarians also expressed Turkey’s perspective in regard to the so-called Armenian genocide allegations and the abandonment of the isolation imposed on the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), and they asked for US assistance on this issue. While US officials did not reveal any approaches regarding the terrorist organization PKK, and they noted that the authority rests with the US Congress with regard to the so-called genocide allegations.