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Rumsfeld Apologizes for Map Incident about the Turkey

Iran Materials 1 November 2006 16:00 (UTC +04:00)

(zaman) - Turkish National Defense Minister Vecdi Gonul met with U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld at the Pentagon yesterday and discussed the unfortunate map incident that occurred earlier this year.

Gonul was greeted by Rumsfeld and military honors upon his arrival at the Pentagon, reports Trend.

Later, when the talks between the delegations started, the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy and a former ambassador to Ankara, Eric Edelman joined them.

At the beginning of talks between the delegations, Rumsfeld expressed regret for the unfortunate map crisis and said he had already sent a letter to Gonul to clarify this issue.

Rumsfeld emphasized that the Pentagon was not involved in the issue.

A U.S. lieutenant colonel had displayed a map showing 18 different cities in Turkey that were mislabeled "Kurdistan" during a seminar at the Rome-based NATO Defense College earlier this year.

U.S. officials had stated that the U.S. administration and polices were not involved in this incident.

Following his meeting with Rumsfeld, Gonul also met Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England at the Pentagon.

Gonul's agenda included the issue of defense and offense against the PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party) terrorism.

Following his dialogue in Washington, Gonul heads tomorrow to Forth Worth, Texas to visit an F-35 manufacturing facility.

Undersecretary for Defense Industry Murad Bayar is also in the Turkish delegation led by Gonul.

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