[05/March/2010]

ANKARA, March 5 (Saba) -- Turkey will go ahead with normalization of ties with Armenia despite the US Congress' decision to recognize the Armenian claims that the Ottomans committed genocide against Armenians, foreign minister Ahmet Davutolgu said Friday, according to Kuwait News Agency (KUNA). 

"The Turks and Armenians lived together as friends and neighbors for 10 centuries, and over these centuries nothing disrupted them except historic events which need scientific and historic scrutiny," Davutoglu told reporters in reaction to the US Congress foreign relations committee.

Turkey, he added, was determined to normalize relations with Armenia in accordance with two protocols signed by the two countries, which ended decades of tension resulted from the Armenians' claims that Ottomans committed massacres against Armenians in 1915.

Davutolgu questioned the US Congress committee's decision which took place at a time Turkey and Armenia sought to establish full and normal relations.
Turkey recalled its ambassador in Washington in protest of the committee's decision, which Davutoglu said would harm ties with the US if it was officially adopted by the house.

US President Barack Obama failed to prevent the committee from approving the decision. The White House voiced concern that the decision would have positive impacts on normalization of ties between Turkey and Armenia, and relations between Washington and Ankara.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan strongly condemned the committee's decision yesterday and said Turkey was accused of a crime it did not commit.

Saba