OBAMA VISIT TO TURKEY RAISES HOPES
Associated Press
Monday, 6 April 2009
President Barack Obama’s arrival in Turkey reignited hopes for a
strengthened alliance and has been seen as a diplomatic victory for
a predominantly Muslim nation that often felt ignored or taken for
granted under the previous US administration.
Obama wants Turkey’s help in the US pullout from Iraq, in
turning around the Afghanistan war and in blocking Iran’s nuclear
ambitions. Long a US ally, Turkey is a member of Nato and is trying
to join the European Union. Before Obama’s arrival late yesterday,
he urged the EU to accept Turkey as a member, saying it would be a
positive sign to the Muslim world.
Turkey, seen as a bridge between the West and the Muslim world,
has also tried to bring peace between Israel and both Syria and the
Palestinians.
"An alliance of civilisations is possible," said Turkey’s Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. "We should determinedly deal with
radicalism."
Erdogan spoke at the Alliance of Civilisations, a forum sponsored
by Turkey and Spain to promote understanding between the Western and
Islamic worlds.
Obama met President Abdullah Gul after paying a highly symbolic visit
to the mausoleum of the national founder and independence war hero,
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. He will meet Erdogan later and travel to
Istanbul to attend a reception of the Alliance of Civilizations.
One of the most contentious issues for Obama may be the Armenian
genocide resolution before Congress. Obama supported the resolution
during the 2008 presidential campaign, and Turks are worried that he
will support it as president, which would be a break from both his
two immediate predecessors who opposed it.
Ankara has warned that the resolution could strain ties between the
allies and harm efforts to improve ties with neighbouring Armenia.
Historians estimate up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed in an event
widely viewed by genocide scholars as the first genocide of the 20th
century. Turkey denies the deaths were genocide, saying those killed
were victims of civil war, and the number of deaths is highly inflated.
In a peaceful protest in Istanbul, meanwhile, the Greenpeace
environmental organisation urged Obama to work to prevent global
warming Police detained at least 16 activists after they hung a
giant banner from an Istanbul bridge with Obama’s picture, reading
"save the climate for peace."