OPPOSITION PARTIES DISSATISFIED WITH OBAMA VISIT

Todays Zaman
April 8 2009
Turkey

US President Barack Obama delivered a speech in the Turkish Parliament
and then held brief talks with the opposition party leaders on Monday.

Opposition party leaders were not pleased with the messages that
US President Barack Obama delivered during their tête-a-tête
meetings in the Turkish Parliament on Monday because they fell short
of their expectations. Obama held brief talks with the opposition
party leaders — main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP)
Chairman Deniz Baykal, opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP)
Chairman Devlet Bahceli and pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP)
Chairman Ahmet Turk — in Parliament on Monday. Party leaders seized
the opportunity to convey different messages to the US president,
but the meetings did not produce the expected results.

DTP leader Turk was probably the most disappointed by Obama’s remarks,
which advised the party that violence or armed struggle would not
solve the Kurdish problem. Turk told Obama about the unsolved murders
in the southeastern parts of Turkey.

He also handed Obama a file that included the views of and proposals
by DTP officials for the solution of the Kurdish issue. Obama, in
response, stressed that the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK)
is a terrorist organization and that violence would not be a means
to solve problems.

Akın Birdal, a DTP deputy, said his party agreed that problems
would not be solved with violence. "We expressed our fear that the
inability to solve the Kurdish problem would bring with it more serious
problems. We have once more made the point that we are for solutions
that use democratic and civilian means," he stated. The DTP currently
faces a closure case in the Constitutional Court on charges of being
"a focal point for terrorism."

The MHP, on the other hand, is concerned that Obama’s visit to Turkey
may further deepen disappointment in Azerbaijan, which was already
uneasy about the invitation of Armenian Foreign Minister Edward
Nalbandian to the second Forum of the UN Alliance of Civilizations
(UNAOC) in Ä°stanbul.

Azerbaijani President Ä°lham Aliyev refused to attend the event,
sending low-profile Azerbaijani officials to represent his country
in protest of the Armenian presence at the meeting.

With growing signs of a thaw in the relations between Turkey and
Armenia after a century of hostility, the chances of Ankara opening
the border it closed in 1993 have significantly improved. Turkey’s
closure of the 268-kilometer-long border had been in solidarity
with Azerbaijan, which was fighting Armenian-backed separatists over
the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region — a festering conflict that
remains unresolved. Azerbaijan, however, is cold to the prospect of
the border being reopened.

MHP Ankara deputy Deniz BölukbaÅ~_ı called Obama’s speech in
Parliament a "disappointment," saying, "Obama’s views of the Armenian
genocide have not changed and his desire for the Halki Seminary to
be reopened and his strong relations with the Kurdish administration
in Iraq are worrisome."

The staunchly secular CHP is uneasy about Obama’s positive sentiments
for Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan but is pleased to have seized
the opportunity to engage in talks with the US president.

CHP leader Baykal mentioned his party’s sensitivity to such issues as
secularism, freedom of the press and freedom of the judiciary. Obama,
in response, asked Baykal why he doesn’t travel to the US. "My friends
often fly to the US, but the last time I traveled to the US was in
1987," Baykal said.

CHP Deputy Chairman Onur Oymen said Obama’s messages during his speech
in Parliament were not beyond expectations. "It’s important that he
dwelled on democracy, secularism and close cooperation between Turkey
and the US. … His remarks, however, on the cooperation between the
two countries in Afghanistan brings up the problem that the US has
high hopes for Turkey," Oymen noted.

He also said the CHP was pleased to see that Obama is likely to pursue
a different policy from that of the Bush administration.

Democratic Left Party (DSP) Ä°stanbul deputy Ahmet Tan stressed that
Obama brought a new series of responsibilities to Turkey during his
visit. "Obama imposed new responsibilities on the government and won
back the hearts of opposition parties. In an approach different from
the Bush administration, Obama is trying to implement its policies
in the Middle East with the support of Turkey," he added.