Word: turkish
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...mainly Muslim country deeply divided over the role of Islam in politics, expanding democratic rights and enacting European Union reforms, the President showed how it's done. From minority Christian leaders and Muslim mufti to Kurdish politicians and right-wing nationalists, Obama met with vastly disparate sections of Turkish society and managed to earn back at least some of the goodwill lost in recent years...
...made all camps happy, but he also gave everyone something to think about," says Turkish newspaper columnist Cuneyt Ulsever of Obama's first day in the capital, Ankara, where he addressed the parliament and met with leaders. "He met with the nationalist opposition but said 'Deal with your past.' He honored the government and hugged the President but asked for progress on normalizing relations with Armenia and improving Kurdish rights. For the secularists, he emphasized Turkey's secular identity but also spoke of respect for Islam's rich history." (See pictures of the Obamas abroad...
...something-for-everyone approach appears to have worked. While anti-American sentiment among Turks rose to historic highs under President George W. Bush, polls show Obama with an approval rating in Turkey above 50%. Even the typically antagonistic Turkish press - left, right, secularist and Islamist - were united in their praise on Tuesday. "He won our hearts," read the banner headline on the mainstream daily Vatan. More important, all referred to Obama's message urging democratic progress. "We must all change," said the top-selling Hurriyet...
...praise for Turkey was plentiful, there was some tough love too. Using the example of the U.S. and its struggle in dealing with the legacy of slavery, he urged Turks to "reckon with their past" in dealing with the killings of hundreds of thousands of Armenians by Ottoman Turkish forces in 1915. During last year's presidential campaign, Obama had said he would officially recognize the deaths as genocide. But in Ankara, he steered clear of the term - which Turkey rejects - and instead voiced support for Turkey's efforts to normalize relations with Armenia...
...Obama's address met with rousing applause from Turkish MPs and is likely to please Turks, many of whom had chafed at the Bush Administration's efforts to position Turkey as a "moderate Islamic state," weakening its officially secular identity. "He said Turkey is a country that's part of the Western world that happens to be Muslim. He's endorsing Turkey as a role model," said Soner Cagatay, head of the Turkish program at the Washington Institute, on CNN. "It's a speech that many Turks will remember for years to come...