At its meeting today (September 21), the Subcommittee on International Operations and Human Rights of the U.S. House of Representatives has decided to forward the draft resolution H.Res.398 to its parent body, the Committee on International Relations.

Based on false and distorted data, H.Res.398 calls for the training of U.S. federal employees on the so-called "Armenian genocide", and for the President of the United States to refer to the so-called "Armenian genocide" in the messages he delivers on April 24 each year.

The Subcommittee constitutes the first stage in the process to adopt measures in the U.S. legislature. Naturally, we will closely follow the process within the House of Representatives.

The draft resolution needs to be brought also before the Committee on International Relations and the floor of the House of Representatives.

The adoption of the draft resolution will not only constitute an important obstacle to the normalization of relations between Turkey and Armenia, but will also fail to contribute to the efforts to bring about the long-awaited peace and stability in the Caucasus.

The adoption of this draft resolution upon the completion of the legislative process in the U.S. House of Representatives will, without any doubt, have serious repercussions on the bilateral relations between Turkey and the United States.

We believe that reason will prevail during the subsequent legislative stages within the House of Representatives, and think that the Members of the House would take into consideration the negative results their decisions will have on Turkish-American relations.