A delegation of Turkish parliamentarians, headed by AK Party Deputy Chairman of External Affairs Suat KINIKLIOGLU, held talks in Washington on February 2-6, 2009. The aim of the trip was to establish early contact with the Obama administration and discuss the future of Turkish-American relations. The delegation consisted of Mr KINIKLIOGLU, Mr YUKSEL both from the ruling AK Party and Mr MELEN from the MHP.

The visit also marked the first official contact between the Turkish Parliament and the Obama administration. The delegation met with officials from the State Department, the U.S. Congress as well as the U.S. Senate. The Turkish delegation also spoke at a number of think-tanks and engaged with the policy community.  Following the immediate aftermath of the Davos Summit the trip assumed an added significance and thus included a meeting with representatives of Jewish organizations in Washington.

KINIKLIOGLU noted that the trip was time well spent and included a number of very good meetings. “We were able to convey our position on the Gaza War and underlined that our protests are about Israeli policy and had nothing to do with anti-Semitism.We also communicated to our counterparts the potential risk that an Armenian resolution in the U.S. House poses to Turkish-American relations as well as the promising news coming g from the rapprochement between Turkey and Armenia."