OBAMA TO WELCOME TURKISH PRESIDENT TO WHITE HOUSE

Agence France Presse
Oct 29 2009
France

US President Barack Obama will discuss the Middle East,
non-proliferation, Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan when he meets Turkish
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan next month, the White House said.

Erdogan’s visit, which was previously announced by the government
in Ankara, will take place at the White House on December 7, Obama’s
spokesman Robert Gibbs said in a statement.

Obama also will raise the normalizing of Turkey’s relations with
Armenia, settling the dispute over Cyprus and human rights, the
statement said.

Turkey, which is a member of NATO, has improved relations with Iran
in recent years and Erdogan visited the country earlier this week in
an attempt to ease tensions over Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.

In an interview with a British newspaper, Erdogan accused Western
powers of treating Iran unfairly and dismissed as "gossip" concerns
that Tehran wanted to build nuclear weapons.

Turkey and Armenia, long-divided by a bloody history, signed historic
agreements earlier this month to end decades of hostility, establish
formal ties and open their border — deals hailed by the United States.

Erdogan’s US visit comes at Washington’s invitation and follows
Obama’s trip to Turkey in April.