Turkish parliamentarians visit US to lobby against the “Armenian genocide” bill

Members of the Turkish Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee and the Turkey-US Parliamentary Friendship Group are expected to lobby in the US capital starting March 1.
Suat Kınıklıoglu, the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP’s, vice president for foreign relations, described the upcoming vote as “a misfortune” showing “lack of foresight” while the normalization processes between Turkey and Armenia is still underway.
“The Armenian diaspora in the US attempted [to pass this bill] in 2007, but failed. The bill was passed through the US House Committee on Foreign Affairs, but failed to pass in Congress,” Kınıklıoğlu told reporters. “We are planning to prevent the bill’s ratification by the committee. In case of failure, we will attempt [to lobby] Congress to not vote for this bill.”
The AKP official called the timing of the vote “absurd and inappropriate” in regard to existing Turkey-U.S. relations. “We hope our efforts will prevent this risky attempt, which may damage bilateral relations,” he said. “We act in unity as government, opposition and NGOs in the US.”

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