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  • ANKARA: Turkey Pleased With Cabinet

    TURKEY PLEASED WITH CABINET

    Hurriyet
    Dec 1 2008
    Turkey

    WASHINGTON - As U.S. president-elect Barack Obama readied to announce
    his former campaign rival Hillary Clinton as choice for secretary of
    state, the reaction of Turkish officials was largely positive.

    The reported choice of top diplomat, as well as others in defense
    and national security, whom officials see as experienced and centrist
    figures with a positive understanding of Turkey.

    The announcement on Clinton is due to come at a news conference in
    Chicago, said officials on Obama's transition team. The incoming
    president has also asked Robert Gates, the current defense secretary,
    to keep his job for at least another year, sources close to the
    president-elect said earlier. For the important post of the national
    security advisor, the official closest to the president, Obama
    has chosen retired Gen. James Jones, a former top NATO commander,
    according to U.S. media. "We have very good relations with these three
    figures. We believe Obama is forming a very good national security
    cabinet," said one Turkish official privately.

    One Turkish concern over the future of the U.S.-Turkish relationship
    is Obama's pledge during the primaries he would recognize the World
    War I-era killings of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire as genocide if
    elected president.

    Obama more sincere Like Obama, Clinton also made a similar
    promise during the primaries to recognize the Armenian killings
    as genocide. But although Sen. Clinton also sponsored a genocide
    resolution in the present Senate, some Armenian groups said she
    objected to another similar legislation in the House of Representatives
    in October 2007. As a result, most Armenians found Obama more sincere
    on Armenian-related matters and the Armenian National Committee of
    America, the largest U.S. Armenian group, decided to back him against
    Clinton in the primaries.

    Turkey also had good relations with the United States during the term
    of former President Bill Clinton, Hillary's husband.

    A U.S. move to provide the Turkish military with intelligence against
    the Kurdistan Workers' Party terrorists in northern Iraq took effect
    in late 2007 under the supervision of Gates and Turkish officials
    were pleased he would most likely retain his job.

    Gates in late 2006 replaced the unpopular Donald Rumsfeld, who until
    the end of his tenure remained consistently angry with Turkey over
    Ankara's refusal to help the Iraq invasion by U.S.-led forces in 2003.

    Amid the Iraq dispute in 2003 and 2004, the Turkish military was in a
    serious friction with the U.S. Central Command responsible for Iraq,
    and it was Jones, as the top NATO commander, who worked as a kind of
    mediator to restore the estranged relationship with Ankara. "Jones
    did a very good job to improve the military-to-military ties," said
    one analyst here. "From Turkey's viewpoint, Clinton, Gates and Jones
    are probably the best trio of picks by Obama for his national security
    team," said the analyst.
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