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http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=67554

US Senate panel set to vote on Turkey, Dink today

Tuesday, March 6, 2007

Senate measure condemns Dink murder, urges Turkey to abolish controversial
penal code and establish ties with Armenia

UMIT ENGINSOY
WASHINGTON - Turkish Daily News

The U.S. Senate's Foreign Relations Committee is scheduled to vote today
on a non-binding resolution condemning Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant
Dink's murder and calling on Turkey to abolish a penal code article blamed
for restricting freedom of expression and to launch diplomatic, political
and trade ties with Armenia, the committee announced.

The move is seen as a prelude to a series of Armenian-related
congressional actions in Congress over the next couple of months, including
a resolution introduced in the House of Representatives calling for the
recognition of World War I-era killings of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire
as genocide.

The 21-senator panel chaired by Delaware Democrat Joe Biden, a
presidential hopeful, is expected to hold a vote on S.Res. 56 around
midnight after the TDN goes topress. Biden in early February introduced the
S.Res. 65 after Dink, editor of the Turkish-Armenian daily Agos was shot
dead in front of his office in Istanbul on Jan. 19. A teenager who has
confessed to killing Dink and a group of ultranationalists have been
arrested for the crime. Biden has already announced he is running for
presidency in the November 2008 elections, but among stronger Democratic
candidates, including Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and
Senator
Barack Obama of Illinois, he is considered a long shot.

S.Res. 65 condemns Dink's assassination, urges Turkey to repeal Article
301 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK), under which Dink had been convicted,
and calls on Ankara "to act in the interest of regional security and
prosperity and reestablish full diplomatic, political and economic
relations
with the government of Armenia."

Turkey officially recognized Armenia when the latter gained its
independence from the former Soviet Union in 1991. However, Ankara refuses
to establish diplomatic ties with Yerevan and open the border, saying
Armenia has been keeping the Nagorno-Karabakh region inside Azerbaijan and
another 20 percent of Azeri territoryunder its occupation. Turkish
diplomats
accuse U.S. Armenians and their backers in Congress of seeking to use
Dink's
murder to humiliate and harm Turkey with this and other resolutions. "At a
time when the Turkish government is considering changes to Article 301,
this
resolution's passage will only make such an effort in Ankara more
difficult,
but Armenians and pro-Armenian legislators here don't care about this, they
care about putting Turkey in a difficult position," one Turkish diplomat
said privately."Hrant Dink, for example, had publicly expressed his
opposition to genocide recognition moves by foreign parliaments, but
this is
also ignored here," said the diplomat.

Most panel members are believed to be supporting S.Res. 65, and if it
passes the Foreign Relations Committee, it will then go to the Senate floor
for further action.If the resolution is approved in a Senate floor vote, it
will not have a binding role on U.S. foreign policy, but reflect the
Senate's sense.

In a related development, the Turkish Embassy here is expected this week
to sign a contract with DLA Piper, which has been selected as Turkey's new
lobbying company here. Turkish Ambassador Nabi Sensoy announced on Friday
that both sides were about to reach a final agreement. DLA Piper is
close to
the Democratic Party, which now controls both chambers in Congress. Former
Democratic House speaker Richard Gephardt is a senior member in the company
and Turkey hopes that the Democratic-leaning firm could facilitate efforts
in reaching out to Congress' Democratic leadership, which has been backing
the Armenian position. The Livingstone Group, a Republican-leaning lobbying
company that has been working with Turkey since 2000, has received a
six-month extension to its contract until August. The two companies are
planned to work together until then.

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