By Liz Heron and Utku Cakirozer
On President Obama’s second day in Turkey, the country’s top newspapers are examining expectations for his visit and noting the effect of Obamamania on a population that has been deeply skeptical of the U.S. in previous years. Newspaper Web sites are analyzing Obama’s historic speech to the Turkish Parliament, with most carrying the full text translated into Turkish.
A front page headline in the popular newspaper Hurriyet proclaimed, in English, “Welcome Mr. President.” The newspaper’s message to Obama seemed to reflect the way many Turks feel about Obama’s visit: “You are in a country that is a friend of the United States. However, you broke our hearts during the last 8 years. Now it is time to fix it.”
Taraf is reporting the findings of a recent poll: 52 percent of Turks have confidence in Obama, a major shift from Turks’ negative feelings toward President Bush. “If [Obama] runs, he can even win the elections in Turkey,” Taraf writes.
Hurriyet compared excitement over the president’s visit to the famous Rorschach inkblot test: “Everybody sees, or wants to see, something else in the flurry of meetings” Obama will attend Monday. While Obama will reach out to the current government, Turkey’s opposition leaders are hoping his visit will give them a chance to raise concerns over issues they deem problematic, including the controversial question of how to handle the country’s ethnic Kurdish population.
Milliyet led with President Obama’s call to European leaders in Prague to let Turkey be a member of the European Union, but notes that French leader Nicholas Sarkozy has kept up his opposition to Turkey’s membership.
Pro-government and Islamist newspaper Yeni Safak is focusing on another dimension of President Obama’s call to European leaders in Prague, reporting on his request that they make peace with Islam by letting Turkey in the EU.
Another major daily, Sabah, praised Obama’s call to the EU leaders, calling him “Helal Obama.” Helal is a common Muslim term used to describe good things. Sabah called the visit a “symbol of hope in Turkey.”
All the other major dailies — Vatan, Radikal and Cumhuriyet — ran similar headlines highlighting Obama’s support for Turkey’s EU membership.
Zaman notes Obama’s promise during his speech to Parliament to stay out of Turkey and Armenia’s effort to restore relations, which have been strained since 1915 because of intense disagreement over whether the Turks committed genocide against the Armenians just after the first World War. Obama said it was not up to him to resolve the dispute, but praised ongoing negotiations between the Turks and Armenians to resolve many long-standing problems.
Source: voices.washingtonpost.com, Apr 6, 2009