Babacan meets with US sec'y of state Rice

Foreign Minister Ali Babacan, currently in Washington, yesterday met with Chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, California representative Howard Berman, Missouri representative Roy Blunt, Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel and Indian Senator Dick Lugar and Massachusetts Senator John Kerry and spoke about Turkey's fight against the terrorist PKK and cross-border operation into northern Iraq. Babacan said that Turkey wanted to normalize its relations with Armenia and that Turkey doesn't want an Iran with nuclear weapons, adding, "But isolation doesn't work. A dialogue must be set up with Iran." Asked about the closure case against the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), Babacan said, "The decision will be conclusive in every case and we will respect it. Turkish democracy will get out of this process by finding the right path." In related news, Babacan met with his US counterpart Condoleezza Rice. Asked about the closure case, Rice said, "We have just an excellent relationship with the government of Prime Minister (Recep Tayyip) Erdogan," adding, "I have been fortunate to have a very good relationship with now President (Abdullah) Gul when he was foreign minister and now with Foreign Minister (Ali) Babacan. So our view is that Turkey will, of course, resolve its issues through its democratic processes. But we are going to continue to work with this government with which we have found a excellent working relationship and share common values and which increasingly, over the last year or so, we find ourselves working more cooperatively, more in unity to solve really hard problems than I think has been experienced in Turkish-US relations for some time."