KurdistanObserver.com

U.S. Ambassador To Turkey Resigns

LOUIS MEIXLER
Associated Press
Mar 18, 2005

ANKARA, Turkey - The U.S. ambassador to Turkey has submitted his resignation after less than two years on the job, the State Department confirmed Friday, a decision that comes amid tensions between the two countries over the war in Iraq.

U.S. Ambassador Eric Edelman plans to resign from the Foreign Service this summer for personal reasons, said Adam Ereli, a spokesman for the State Department. Ereli said the ambassador "is leaving Turkey on positive, friendly, cooperative terms," and the spokesman declined to comment on Turkish reports that the ambassador would take a position in the Pentagon.

During a trip to the country earlier this year, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice reportedly instructed Edelman to do more to calm anti-Americanism in the Turkish media.

Many Turks are deeply suspicious over U.S. intentions in northern Iraq, where Kurds control an autonomous area. Turkey fears that Iraqi Kurds could push for independence, which could inspire Kurds in Turkey. Kurdish rebels have been battling the Turkish army since 1984, a fight that has left some 37,000 dead.

Edelman has drawn criticism from some Turkish newspapers, and one Turkish web site claims to have collected 5,000 signatures calling for him to be expelled from the country.

He arrived in Turkey in August 2003, when relations were also tense.

In March 2003, Turkey snubbed a U.S.-request to host troops in the country to invade neighboring Iraq. Relations were further strained when the U.S. military detained a team of Turkish special forces in northern Iraq in July 2003 that were reportedly plotting to assassinate a Kurdish official in the ethnically divided city of Kirkuk.