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Obama Restoring Ties With Turkey

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The Associated Press

Published: March 8, 2009

ANKARA, Turkey - For one of his first foreign visits, President Barack Obama will call on NATO ally Turkey, an overwhelmingly Muslim country viewed as critical to aiding the U.S. pullout from Iraq, turning around the Afghanistan war and blocking Iran's nuclear ambitions.

The invasion of Iraq has strained the long friendship between the United States and Turkey, a Western-style democracy that straddles Europe and the Middle East and has an Islamic-oriented government. Obama's visit, expected at the end of a European trip in early April, would mark an improvement in ties.

"We share a commitment to democracy, a secular constitution, respect for religious freedom and belief and in free market and a sense of global responsibility," U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Saturday in announcing Obama's plans after meeting with Turkish leaders in the capital.

Turkey advised against the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 and refused to permit U.S. ground forces to launch elements of the attack from Turkish soil.

In a more cordial atmosphere now, Washington and Ankara are consulting on ways Turkey can help facilitate the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. Turkey has said it is ready to serve as an exit route. The U.S. air base at Incirlik has been used for transfer of U.S. troops and equipment to Iraq and Afghanistan.

"We have to discuss what will pass, what kind of equipment," Foreign Minister Ali Babacan said. "We are ready to cooperate."

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