In a move to lobby against a "genocide" resolution introduced by Democrat and Republican congressmen in the U.S. House of Representatives, a group of Turkish lawmakers will leave for the United States within this month.

Lawmakers will explain the Turkish thesis on the Armenian question, present official documents and make it clear that an adoption of the genocide resolution will cast a shadow on Turkish-U.S. relations. The first group will depart on Feb. 10 and deputies will be dispatched to the United States for lobbying in periodical intervals

The lobbying planned in both Washington and New York bears importance for two reasons. First, Turkish lawmakers are expected to meet with members of the Armenian diaspora as part of their lobbying in the United States and, second, Erzurum deputy of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) Muzaffer Gülyurt, whose family in Erzurum was persecuted by Armenians during World War I, is going to be among the lobbying Turkish lawmakers.

Besides lawmakers, Dülger said, the head of the Turkish Union of Chambers and Commodities Exchanges (TOBB), Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu, also wanted to lobby with almost 30 deputies and businessmen in the United States.

We would like to meet with members of the diaspora as well, Mehmet Dülger, head of Parliament's Foreign Affairs Commission, told the Turkish Daily News. We'll also take Muzaffer Gülyurt with us because his father and family were subjected to Armenian persecution. He knows what happened [in history]. We want him to relay his knowledge to members of the U.S. Congress.

Gülyurt, speaking with the Turkish Daily News, said Armenians took prisoner his father in 1914. There are many people from my family who were killed by the Armenians. … According to my father, Turks did not commit genocide but on the contrary they were subjected to Armenian persecution.

GÖKSEL BOZKURT

TDN