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VoA: US Secretary Of State Clinton To Visit Turkey Saturday

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  • VoA: US Secretary Of State Clinton To Visit Turkey Saturday

    US SECRETARY OF STATE CLINTON TO VISIT TURKEY SATURDAY
    By Dorian Jones

    Voice of America
    http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-03-06- voa36.cfm
    March 6 2009

    US Sec. of State Hillary Clinton arrives for a meeting of the EU-US
    Troika in Brussels, 06 Mar 2009 U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton
    visits Turkey Saturday, the final stop on a trip that has included
    stops in the Middle East and Europe.

    Secretary of State Clinton's efforts to bring peace to the Middle
    East is expected to be at the top of her agenda in Ankara.

    Analysts note Turkey's ties with Hamas and with countries in the
    Arab world make the country an important asset, and Ankara is also
    reported to be mending fences with Israel after a war of words between
    the two counties over the recent Israeli military operation into Gaza.

    Another difficult issue expected to come up during the Clinton visit
    will be Afghanistan, and the Secretary of State is expected to press
    Turkey to increase its military forces there.

    A Turkish soldier salutes during the Regional Command Capital
    transfer of authority from Turkish to Italian forces at NATO-ISAF's
    multi-national brigade in Kabul, (2007 file photo) Turkish forces are
    currently engaged in peacekeeping in and around the Afghan capital
    Kabul, but the United States is hoping other countries contributing
    troops to Afghanistan will put additional efforts in the south,
    where the Taleban insurgency has shown growing strength.

    International relations expert Soli Ozel of Bilgi University says
    that will be hard sell to Turkey's armed forces chiefs.

    "Look if you do indeed have in Kabul have a situation where other
    country's soldiers are wearing Turkish soldiers uniforms because it
    is a lot safer in the streets that tells you something about the kind
    of the prestige that the turks enjoy in Kabul, would you really want
    to ruin this by sending fighting troops to the south," Ozel said.

    But analysts say there is not only military opposition to such a
    move. The country's Islamic rooted government also has ideological
    concerns over the Turkish army being engaged in the war against the
    Taleban according to Ozel.

    "There is this issue Turkish troops fighting Muslims they don't want to
    give this impression, how are going to explain the body bags that are
    inevitably going to be coming. It is the same kind of concerns that
    the Germans and others express with the added dimension of Islamic
    orientated government being in power the country being overwhelmingly
    Muslim and not seeing the operations in Afghanistan necessarily as
    legitimate as other NATO members do," said Ozel.

    A general view shows the reactor building of the Bushehr nuclear
    power plant, in southern Iran (File) Another hot button topic expected
    to be discussed during the Clinton visit is Iran's nuclear program,
    which the United States suspects is being used as part of a program
    to develop a nuclear weapons program, a charge Tehran denies.

    Gokhan Cetinsaya is an adviser to the Turkish foreign ministry on
    Iran he says Ankara is well placed to help defuse tensions.

    "There are good relations with Iran, there are good relations with the
    United states . I think Turkey is in that sense, Turkey is in a very
    unique position. Probably this is an unofficial role and in that case
    probably you can facilitate their communication their understanding
    and you can inform them about intentions and discourse of the other
    side," he said.

    Another focus of Clinton's talks Saturday will likely be Iraq, where
    the United States is planning to draw down its forces. The Turkish
    foreign minister this month indicated that United States would
    be allowed to use Turkish territory for the withdrawal. But that
    cooperative spirit could be compromised by the ongoing effort in the
    U.S. Congress to push through a motion to recognize the mass killings
    of Turkish Armenians in 1915 by then Ottoman forces as genocide -
    a charge Ankara strongly denies.

    A 23 July 2008 file photo of a ruined church near the Turkish-Armenian
    border, in the now- uninhabited capital of a medieval Armenian
    kingdom During his election campaign, then presidential candidate
    Barack Obama said he supports such efforts. But Turkish government
    minister Ergemen Bagis while predicting Mr. Obama will not honor such
    a commitment warns of far reaching consequences if he does.

    "That would be seen as an insult to our efforts to make peace. There
    would be important implications. Turkey today provides 70% of all
    the logistical goods to all the US troops in Iraq. Turkey is an
    important player in NATO, we have the second largest military in NATO
    in the United States. We are together in most of the peacekeeping
    operations. But we have saying the head that wears the crown is
    wiser. Once the US president sits in their office and understand
    turkey's role in the security in this very difficult part of the world,
    they try not to interfere the local domestic issues," said Bagis.

    During her meetings, analysts say Clinton will likely hear that Turkey
    is working hard to improve relations with Armenia including resolving
    historical disputes. She is also expected to again be made aware that
    anti-U.S. sentiment in Turkey is amongst the highest in the world. But
    analysts say with Mr. Obama's election is being overwhelmingly welcomed
    both in the country and in government, Clinton's visit comes at an
    opportune time.
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