Obama's Visit to Turkey in the British press‏

[Articles from the Economist, The Times and Guardian.
The piece by Robert Fisk in the Independent has already been circulated]


Turkey and Barack Obama
Friends by the Bosporus
Apr 8th 2009 | ISTANBUL
From The Economist print edition

Turkey basks in the glory of a two-day visit by Barack Obama

IT WAS sealed with an embrace. Barack Obama concluded his wide-ranging
address to the Turkish parliament on April 6th by kissing the prime minister,

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on both cheeks. That seemed to please his audience

of parliamentarians, as did the American president’s pledge that his country

was “not at war with Islam.” He pointed out that many Americans are part of

Muslim families, and others have lived in countries where Muslims are in the

majority. “I know, because I am one of them,” he said, prompting wild applause.

Mr Obama delivered a high-class performance, charming his audience by

calling Turkey a “critical” ally and an important part of Europe. Its secular

free-market democracy is just the sort of model America hopes might

inspire Muslims everywhere. That message was also received by millions

tuned into Al-Jazeera’s live coverage of Mr Obama’s speeches during his

two-day tour to Ankara and Istanbul.

Mr Obama’s decision to add Turkey to his European tour went beyond

confirming (to the joy of Turkey’s secular elite) the country’s western

credentials. It highlighted Turkey’s emergence as a regional power that

matters and as a large, mainly Muslim member of NATO (tiny Albania,

another Muslim country, has just joined NATO as well). After seven years

under the mildly Islamist Justice and Development (AK) Party, Turkey

enjoys growing influence and popularity in the Arab world.

Turkish support will be critical as America prepares to withdraw from

Iraq and switch its focus to Afghanistan. Mr Obama (who went on from

Istanbul to Baghdad for a flying visit) reportedly urged Abdullah Gul, the

Turkish president, to send more troops to Afghanistan, some of them

for combat. Turkey already has 900 soldiers in Afghanistan and is a

transit hub for supplies to American troops both there and in Iraq. The

Turks have also acted as a conduit for messages between America and

Iran as the two countries consider re-establishing dialogue.

Mr Obama’s trip comes after a prolonged chill between America and

Turkey, prompted largely by differences over Iraq. The Turkish parliament

provoked fury, especially in the Pentagon, when it voted in March 2003

a gainst letting American troops use the country as a route for opening a

second front in Iraq. America’s refusal to take action against separatist

rebels from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in northern Iraq then fed

Turkish anger. Some opinion polls showed support for America in single

digits when George Bush was president. But America’s decision in late

2007 to provide intelligence on the PKK and to let Turkish planes bomb

rebel bases in northern Iraq changed the mood. So, even more, did

Mr Obama’s election.

Perhaps the most important change, as Mr Obama acknowledged, is

that America has overcome its cold-war habit of engaging mostly with

Turkey’s generals. As democracy has taken root, public opinion has

come to count. Turkey’s generals found this out when voters returned

the AK for a second term in the July 2007 general election with a thumping

47% of the vote soon after the top brass threatened a coup.

Mr Obama’s 25-minute speech to the Turkish parliament offered something

for everyone, whether secularist, Islamist, nationalist or Kurdish. Even the

generals showed up to listen. They have been boycotting parliament ever

since 20 members of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP)

were elected in 2007.

Most of his listeners will have been pleased to hear Mr Obama stress

Turkey’s Western orientation, saying that America supported Turkey’s

aspirations for European Union membership “not as members of the EU

but as close friends of both Turkey and Europe.” The Islamists liked his

reference to Turkey’s Muslim identity. But he also called for respect for

minorities, declaring that the Greek Orthodox seminary on Halki, an island

off Istanbul, must be reopened. In a bold gesture he included the DTP’s

co-chairman, Ahmet Turk, among the opposition leaders whom he met.

Mr Turk has long sought an audience with Mr Erdogan, but never had

one because he refuses to label the PKK as “terrorist”.

Only one cloud hung over Mr Obama’s trip: his campaign pledge to

call the mass killings of the Ottoman Armenians in 1915 “genocide”.

In a press conference after his talks with Mr Gul, the American

president said that he had not changed his view of history. But in a

blow to the Armenian diaspora, which has long lobbied for a

congressional bill to label the massacres as genocide, Mr Obama

suggested that Turkey’s recent efforts to reopen its border and

re-establish diplomatic ties with Armenia should not be

overshadowed by America’s position on the issue. Turkey and

Armenia are expected soon to sign an agreement, after months

of Swiss-sponsored talks in Bern. Officials close to the negotiations

say that a document could be initialled by both sides in “a matter

of days” and that the border could be reopened “within months”.

This was not all a cynical fudge. During his parliamentary speech,

Mr Obama declared that “history…unresolved can be a heavy weight…

I know there are strong views in this chamber about the terrible events

of 1915. While there has been a good deal of commentary about my

views, this is really about how the Turkish and Armenian people deal

with the past. And the best way forward for the Turkish and Armenian

people is a process that works through the past in a way that is honest,

open and constructive.”

Not all Turks agree. An Ankara court recently overturned an Istanbul

prosecutor’s decision not to investigate some 30,000 Turks who have

signed an online declaration apologising to the Ottoman Armenians for

the “great catastrophe” that befell them in 1915.

Tensions are also running high in the mostly Kurdish south-east.

Mr Obama praised the recent launch of a state-run 24-hour

Kurdish-language television channel. But only days before his arrival,

two Kurdish youths were killed in clashes with police during a rally called

to mark the birthday of the captive PKK leader, Abdullah Ocalan. Over 50

demonstrators who turned out to protest against the deaths are still in

police custody.

Many friends of Turkey hope that Mr Obama will stick by his pledge on

the Armenian genocide. They say that would restore America’s moral

credibility and would allow it to draw attention to Turkey’s patchy

human-rights record. Until recently, the EU’s remonstrations counted

most. But Europe’s habitual foot-dragging during Turkey’s membership

talks has meant that it “has neither any carrots nor any sticks left,”

confesses an EU envoy in Ankara. Enter Barack Hussein Obama to

fill the void.


BARACK OBAMA SIDESTEPS ARMENIAN GENOCIDE ROW ON TRIP TO TURKEY
Philippe Naughton
Times Online
April 6, 2009

Barack Obama found his diplomatic skills tested to the limit today
when he was forced to address the Turkish slaughter of Armenians during
the dying days of the Ottoman Empire without using the word "genocide".

Historians estimate that up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed in a
systematic campaign of extermination during the First World War, and
during his campaign for the presidency Mr Obama declared that "America
deserves a leader who speaks truthfully about the Armenian genocide".

Today, during a joint press conference in Ankara with his Turkish
counterpart Abdullah Gul, President Obama said that his views had
not changed but he took extreme care not to use the word "genocide"
so as not to inflame his hosts, who have always denied the claims.

Instead, he expressed the hope that talks between Turkey and Armenia
could "bear fruit very soon" and he wanted to support that process.

"Well, my views are on the record and I have not changed views,"
Mr Obama said in response to a question about the genocide and his
stance on it.

"I want to focus not on my views right now, but on the views of the
Turkish and Armenian people. If they can move forward and deal with
a difficult and tragic history, then I think the entire world should
encourage that."

Responding to the same question, Mr Gul appeared to back Mr Obama
by declaring that it was "not a legal or political issue, but an
historical issue" which was being addressed by a joint commission
of historians.

Even though he took a swipe at members of the Armenian diaspora
who use the issue to "cling to their identity", he also appeared to
suggest that a breakthrough was near.

"Our view is that we should let the historians, the experts, sit down,"
Mr Gul said.

"We are ready to face the reality, the facts. I cannot be the
politicians who decide what happened when, who lost the most lives
and who is right and who is wrong."

BARACK OBAMA URGES TURKEY AND ARMENIA TO 'DEAL WITH TRAGIC HISTORY
Mark Tran
guardian.co.uk
Monday 6 April 2009 13.12 BST

'US president downplays his support for Congress resolution accusing
Turkey of 1915 genocide against Armenians

Barack Obama today downplayed his support for a controversial US
Congress resolution accusing Turkey of carrying out a genocide against
the Armenian people in 1915.

Speaking during a visit to Ankara, the US president - who
has previously described the deaths of 1.5 million Armenians as
"genocide" - said he had not changed his view but had been encouraged
by negotiations between Turkey and Armenia on the issue.

Obama told a joint news conference with the Turkish president, Abdullah
Gul, that he did not want to focus on his own views but wanted to be
a partner in efforts between Armenia and Turkey to come to terms with
what happened.

He supported an Armenian genocide resolution put before Congress
during the 2008 presidential campaign.

Turkey fears he will continue this backing as president in a break
with his two immediate predecessors, George Bush and Bill Clinton.

Ankara has warned that the resolution could strain ties and harm
efforts to improve relations with Armenia.

Historians estimate up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed in an event
widely viewed by scholars as the first genocide of the 20th century.

Turkey denies that the deaths were genocide , saying those killed
were victims of civil war. It also claims the number of deaths has
been inflated.

Gul said the issue was historical and not legal or political,
and invited the Americans or French - France has been vocal about
the deaths - to be part of a joint Turkish-Armenian commission
investigating what happened.

Obama said he wanted to encourage those talks, not tilt them in favour
of one country.

"If they can move forward and deal with a difficult and tragic
history, then I think the entire world should encourage that," the
US president said.

He added that he wanted the US and Turkey to build a "model
partnership" between a predominantly Christian country and a mainly
Muslim nation.

Turkey is seen as important diplomatic player because of its role as
honest broker in the Middle East conflict.

It has relations with Israel and Hamas and also has good ties with
Iran, with which the US wants to improve relations.

Obama was spending two days in Turkey as he wrapped up an eight-day
international trip that took in the G20 summit in London along with
stops in France, Germany and the Czech Republic, where he announced
ambitious plans to rid the world of nuclear weapons.

In Prague yesterday, Obama also urged the EU to let Turkey join
the 27-member club, a particularly contentious issue for Germany
and France.

Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, point edly said after Obama's
remarks that the decision was for the EU, not the US, to make.

Turkey is a member of both the G20 and Nato, in which it has the
alliance's second biggest army after the US, and is trying to get
into the EU with the help of the US.


HOW BARACK OBAMA REFRAINED FROM USING THE 'G' WORD IN TURKEY
Robert Tait
The Guardian
Tuesday 7 April 2009

Even before he took office, Turks were anxious to hear Barack Obama's
attitude towards the Armenians who died during the last days of the
Ottoman empire. Armenians in the US say that up to 1.5 million of their
ethnic kin were killed by Ottoman forces in a genocide plotted by the
then Turkish leadership. Turkey has said the numbers are exaggerated
and the deaths not deliberate genocide.

During last year's presidential election campaign, Obama had no
doubt. "The Armenian genocide is not an allegation, a personal opinion
or a point of view, but rather a widely documented fact supported by
an overwhelming body of historical evidence."

Obama, with Turkey's president Abdullah Gul and before parliament
yesterday, refrained from using what the Turkish media call "the
g word". It was not because his views had changed, he said, but
because of ongoing talks between Turkey and Armenia, they no longer
matter. "What I want to do now is not focus on my views but on the
views of the Turkish and Armenian people," he said.
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