William H. Frist: “on Wednesday, I will have the honor of meeting with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan here in the Capitol. We…”

“on Wednesday, I will have the honor of meeting with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan here in the Capitol. We will be meeting to discuss the importance of the United States-Turkish relationship and the ways in which we can strengthen that bond to achieve our common goals. I have had the opportunity to meet with the Prime Minister twice before over the past 12 months. During a trip to the Middle East this spring, I sat down with Prime Minister Erdogan in Jerusalem. Prior to that, we met in Istanbul in the summer of 2004. I look forward to continuing our dialog on the importance of the Turkish-American relationship. Turkey is a critical NATO ally and an indispensable partner in the global war on terror. Despite our two countries' strong ties and close cooperation, there have been strains in the recent past that began with the liberation of Iraq in the spring of 2003. Some in the press speculate that Istanbul and Washington are going their separate ways. This is simply not the case. It is true that March of 2003, the Turkish parliament rejected our request to permit the deployment of U.S. troops to Turkey in order to open a northern front against Saddam's forces. Clearly, we were not pleased. However, Turkey's subsequent offer to send troops to Iraq and President Bush's visit to Turkey last June moved our partnership beyond that matter.…”