Turkey visit more strategy than symbolism

President Obama touched down in the Muslim world late Sunday, but his visit to Turkey is more about strategic partnership than symbolic outreach.

Capping off a tour that took the president through London for the G-20 summit, across the Franco-German border for NATO’s 60th anniversary meetings and into Prague for a speech on combating nuclear proliferation, Obama is expected to follow the theme of strategic cooperation with Turkey laid out during Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s visit a month ago.

{mosads}A senior Turkish government official told The Hill that the visit, which comes on the heels of meetings between Foreign Minister Ali Babacan and Vice President Biden in Munich in February and two subsequent phone conversations between Obama and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is a “major step symbolizing the bilateral relationship between Turkey and the United States.”

The issues that stand between the United States and Turkey range from the legislation
currently in a House committee that would deem the slayings of World
War I-era Armenians by the Ottoman Empire genocide to concerns that
Kurdish rebels (PKK) along the Iraqi border could pose a greater threat
to Turkey after a U.S. withdrawal.

Obama landed Sunday in Ankara, where Monday he will visit the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of the secular Turkish republic.

He will also meet with President Abdullah Gul and Erdogan, and is scheduled to deliver an address to the Turkish parliament.

The Turkish official said this would not be a sweeping message to the Muslim world from a Muslim capital, as Obama has promised to do in his first 100 days (“he may choose to do that in another country at another time and another place”), but a “speech at the Turkish parliament to Turkish people” — particularly to young people.

Next, Obama will fly to Istanbul for the Alliance of Civilizations meeting Tuesday. The Alliance of Civiliations is a U.N.-backed effort advanced by Spain and Turkey to open dialogue between the West and the Muslim world. The U.S. is not a member, though Iran and Syria are.

Other leaders scheduled to attend the alliance’s second forum were Erdogan, Spanish President José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

The Turkish official said Obama was not scheduled to speak at the Alliance of Civilizations forum, nor would the president be visiting the volatile border region with Iraq.

Issues concerning Turkey’s role in the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq will surely be a topic of discussion during Obama’s visit, as well as Obama’s planned Afghanistan troop surge and the repercussions of the war’s next stage on the Muslim world. The official said other topics could include the economy, Iran’s nuclear program and Turkey’s bid to join the European Union — a quest that Obama supports, as did his predecessor.

And then there is the question of the genocide bill, which now has 93 co-sponsors in the House. Turkey opposes the bill and has warned of chillier relations should the legislation pass. On the campaign trail, Obama had promised to recognize the 1915 killings as genocide should he be elected president.

“We are going to focus on the positive,” the Turkish official said. “We do not want anything to hijack this visit.

“The administration knows our side very well,” the official continued. “We think it should not be legislated. We should leave this to the historians … Hopefully, we will be able to stay on the positive.”

Obama comes into the Turkish meetings having played mediator in the unanimous NATO decision to name Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen the next secretary-general of the alliance. In return for Turkey dropping its objections — which included Rasmussen’s rejection of censorship in the Muhammad cartoons controversy and the presence in Denmark of a TV station geared toward Kurdish separatists — a Turkish envoy will be Rasmussen’s NATO deputy. The BBC also reported that Turkey will occupy the slot for NATO’s envoy to Afghanistan.

The Turkish official added that they’re not convinced that the Obama administration will even need help reaching out to Iran but that the assistance will be there if needed. “We are talking to all our neighbors, including Iran. We have channels of communication that are open.”

Turkey had been mediating between Syria and Israel until the Jewish state launched Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip in the last days of 2008.