Agence France Presse, France
April 4 2009 3:01 AM GMT

Obama seeks to lure Turkey back towards West

by Hande Culpan
ANKARA, April 4 2009

Barack Obama will make his first foray into the Muslim world next week
when he visits Turkey, a trip analysts say is aimed at pinning down a
long-time ally Washington fears is slipping from its grasp.

While Turkey hopes the two-day visit will strengthen ties strained by
the Iraq war, Obama is expected to push a bigger agenda for a country
bordering Iran and Iraq as well as Europe and Syria.

"There is a growing sense in Washington that the United States is
losing Turkey," said Soner Cagaptay from the Washington Institute for
Near East Policy.

Cagaptay said that Washington and Ankara had been sharply at odds in
recent years over hot-button issues such as how to deal with Iran’s
nuclear programme, the rise to power of the radical Palestinian
movement Hamas in Gaza, and Sudan.

Obama intends to "give Turkey… a bear hug from the West" by coming
to Turkey immediately after attending European Union and NATO summits,
he added.

"Symbolically, he is telling the whole world that this is a European
trip and that Turkey is a part of that, in a way dropping the idea of
NATO, Europe and (Turkey’s) EU accession as an anchor with which to
tie Turkey to the West."

While Turkey was long regarded as one of the United States’ closest
allies in the Muslim world, many observers detected a cooling of ties
during George W. Bush’s presidency.

An overwhelming majority of Turks were opposed to the US-led invasion
of Iraq while Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his
Islamist-rooted government were notably critical of Bush’s war on
terror.

"I believe that President Obama must redefine terror and terrorist
organisations in the Middle East," Erdogan said in a recent speech at
the World Economic Forum in Davos, hinting that the new leader should
review US policy toward Hamas and other militant groups blacklisted as
terror outfits.

"And based on this new definition a new American policy must be
implemented in the Middle East," he added.

Cengiz Aktar, a foreign relations expert from the Bahcesehir
University in Istanbul, stressed that Turkey should not misinterpret
Obama’s visit as a sign that Washington would agree to Turkey’s every
demand or move.

Erdogan’s "Islamist-rooted government needs to change its stance"
regarding Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir, subject to an
international arrest warrant for alleged war crimes in Darfur, and
Hamas whose stated aim is to destroy Israel, he said.

Obama is scheduled to arrive in Turkey late Sunday ahead of official
talks in Ankara on Monday, a day before flying to Istanbul where he is
expected to visit a 17th century Ottoman mosque.

Many have touted Turkey, the only Muslim member of NATO, as the
possible stage for Obama’s promised address to the Muslim world, but
Cagaptay said that would not fit in with the visit’s dominant theme.

"The (US) emphasis is no more Turkey’s Muslimness or Turkey being part
of a larger Muslim World but that it is a European country that is
part of the West that happens to be Muslim," he said.

Opinion polls have shown that Obama is massively more popular among
Turks than Bush although his standing could be severely tested late
this month when he is expected to deliver a proclamation on whether to
label Ottoman World War I-era mass killings of Armenians as
"genocide".

Mensur Akgun, a foreign relations expert from Istanbul’s Kultur
University, warned that Obama’s bid to foster closer cooperation would
suffer if the president fulfills his election promise to recognise the
1915-1917 killings as genocide — a label Ankara rejects.

"That would damage bilateral ties, hamper debate inside Turkey on the
killings and hit Ankara’s dialogue process with Yerevan to resolve
their differences," he said.

Obama’s visit, Cagaptay said, provides Turkey the chance to get a
recognition of its importance for the United States and "steal Obama’s
heart" before his proclamation on April 24 — the 94th anniversary of
the start of the massacres.

"Turkey is the only NATO country that borders Iraq and Iran — one is
a problem that America wants to put away, the other a problem that
America wants to tackle," he said.

"It is a country that borders the Black Sea and the Caucasus, an area
in which Washington is trying to figure out what to do. It is a
central hub for US operations in Afghanistan and beyond."

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress