LETTER TO PRESIDENT OBAMA FROM AMERICAN TURKISH COUNCIL

Dear ATC Members,

ATC Chairman, Ambassador Richard Armitage, sent a letter today to President Obama urging him to avoid in his April 24 Armenian Remembrance Day Statement tagging the Ottoman Empire and its successor state, Turkey, with the crime of “genocide”.  This is an opportunity, Chairman Armitage writes, to promote Turkish and Armenian healing and to “encourage open borders and regional peace, and American security and commerce.”

A copy of Chairman Armitage’s letter is attached.

It is our intention, once we are past April 24, to embark immediately on several activities that demonstrate the health and vitality of Turkish – American relations, and not least of all, the potential for substantially increased bilateral commerce.