Word: ankara
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...There has never been such a high-profile period in U.S.-Turkish relations before," says columnist Cengiz Candar, referring to Obama's planned trip, which follows a visit by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to Ankara last weekend. "Never in history has a U.S. President visited Turkey so soon after taking office." (See pictures of cultures coexisting in Istanbul...
...Ties between Washington and Ankara had become increasingly fraught under the Bush administration, never fully recovering from the Turkish parliament's refusal in 2003 to allow U.S. troops to use Turkey as a launching pad into neighboring Iraq. During the subsequent war, U.S. popularity fell to an all-time low in Turkey. But Obama appears to view Turkey - a predominantly Muslim but officially secular country straddling Europe, Central Asia and the Middle East - as having a key part to play in his effort to heal U.S. relations with the Islamic world. An increasingly assertive regional power, Turkey has significant influence...
...Turkey is the only country in the region with strong military and economic ties to Israel, which supplies Ankara with defense equipment estimated at $100 million annually. The two countries also have a long-established relationship of intelligence cooperation. So, though Erdogan lambasted Israel's Gaza attacks as a "crime against humanity," he also affirmed that long-term relations between the two countries would not suffer...
...Ankara's changed orientation is not without its detractors. Secularist Turks, worried about what they see as Erdogan's Islamicizing agenda, accuse the government of pulling away from the West and abandoning its E.U. membership drive, pointing to controversial decisions like Ankara's hosting of Hamas leader Khaled Meshal in 2006 as proof...
...Turkish officials are pushing for an international peacekeeping force to supervise a new cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas and have offered to commit troops. Ankara has also offered its services to incoming U.S. President Barack Obama to act as a mediator between the U.S. and Iran. "If Obama pursues new policies in the Middle East, as is expected, Turkey could be a key supporting partner in building peace," says Alpay. Which is just how the Ottoman pashas of old would have...