TURKISH MEDIA PRAISE "HELAL OBAMA"
By Liz Heron and Utku Cakirozer

Washington Post
6/turkish_media_praise_helal_oba.html?wprss=44
Apr il 6 2009

On President Obama’s second day in Turkey, the country’s top newspapers
are examining expectations for his visit and noting the effect of
Obamamania on a population that has been deeply skeptical of the
U.S. in previous years. Newspaper Web sites are analyzing Obama’s
historic speech to the Turkish Parliament, with most carrying the
full text translated into Turkish.

A front page headline in the popular newspaper Hurriyet proclaimed,
in English, "Welcome Mr. President." The newspaper’s message to Obama
seemed to reflect the way many Turks feel about Obama’s visit: "You
are in a country that is a friend of the United States. However, you
broke our hearts during the last 8 years. Now it is time to fix it."

Taraf is reporting the findings of a recent poll: 52 percent of Turks
have confidence in Obama, a major shift from Turks’ negative feelings
toward President Bush. "If [Obama] runs, he can even win the elections
in Turkey," Taraf writes.

Hurriyet compared excitement over the president’s visit to the famous
Rorschach inkblot test: "Everybody sees, or wants to see, something
else in the flurry of meetings" Obama will attend Monday. While Obama
will reach out to the current government, Turkey’s opposition leaders
are hoping his visit will give them a chance to raise concerns over
issues they deem problematic, including the controversial question
of how to handle the country’s ethnic Kurdish population.

Milliyet led with President Obama’s call to European leaders in
Prague to let Turkey be a member of the European Union, but notes
that French leader Nicholas Sarkozy has kept up his opposition to
Turkey’s membership.

Pro-government and Islamist newspaper Yeni Safak is focusing on another
dimension of President Obama’s call to European leaders in Prague,
reporting on his request that they make peace with Islam by letting
Turkey in the EU.

Another major daily, Sabah, praised Obama’s call to the EU leaders,
calling him "Helal Obama." Helal is a common Muslim term used to
describe good things. Sabah called the visit a "symbol of hope
in Turkey."

All the other major dailies — Vatan, Radikal and Cumhuriyet —
ran similar headlines highlighting Obama’s support for Turkey’s
EU membership.

Zaman notes Obama’s promise during his speech to Parliament to stay out
of Turkey and Armenia’s effort to restore relations, which have been
strained since 1915 because of intense disagreement over whether the
Turks committed genocide against the Armenians just after the first
World War. Obama said it was not up to him to resolve the dispute,
but praised ongoing negotiations between the Turks and Armenians to
resolve many long-standing problems.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress