Parliament's Turkish-American Friendship Group Chairman Şaban Dişli, who paid a visit to Washington with a delegation on Feb. 24 and Feb. 26 to work against anti-Turkey activities in the U.S., said that they would maintain their visits to prevent the influence of the Gülen Movement in Congress. Along with the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) Ankara Deputy Reha Denemeç and American Platform President İlkem Şahin, Dişli had contact with the co-chairs of the Turkish Friendship Group in the U.S. Congress, Democrat Steve Cohen, Republican Ed Whitfield, Republican Virginia Foxx and Democrat Gerry Connoly. Speaking to Daily Sabah after the talks, Dişli said the timing of their visit was convenient and the train-and-equip agreement signed between Turkey and the U.S. created a positive impression in Congress. "I invited each of them to Turkey and said that they could visit the camps of the Syrians positioned in Turkey," Dişli said. Dişli also said representatives from both sides should visit each other more frequently to enable the progress of the relationship between the two countries without a problem. "Otherwise, the Gülen Movement is engaging in all sorts of activities to hamper Turkey and create a negative impression [of Turkey] with the power it exercises. We will sustain our work in the forthcoming days, too," he stated.Dişli also said that he received some questions regarding press freedom in Turkey during the talks. "I said the incident that happened in the Zaman daily was the result of the acts of persons who did not accept the invitation of a prosecutor and reported the newspaper office as their address. I emphasized that there is a system of law in Turkey and no one is above the law. I also added that only one person was arrested as part of the latest operation. Those reasons seemed convincing to them," he added.Claiming that he was asked certain questions on Turkey's stance against Israel, Dişli said: "I told them that Turkey does not have any problem with Jews or Israel, and the actual problem stems from the Israeli government. For about 500 years, we have not had any issues with Jews. When we attempted to better our relations, Israel leaked the content of the confidential talks it made with Turkey to the press."