Obama Mends Strained Relations With Turkey

Visit May Signal Historic Shift In U.S. Middle East Policy

In spite of efforts to turn the clock and transform Turkey back to a an Islamic country that the West can live with, the fact remains that Turkey is not a typical Islamic country. Officially the country has no religion by its constitution, the product of its founder Ataturk, a nationalist general that kicked out colonists and built a republic from the ashes of the defunct Ottoman Empire, very much in the style of George Washington. His secularism goes beyond the separation of church (or mosque) and state. Ataturk built his republic and nation with his social reformation and by controlling religion. He knew that if he didn't control it, it would control society and government and hinder social and economic progress as it had done for 500 years. Based on concepts of a universal brotherhood, charity and distribution of wealth, Islam is a totalitarian political, social and economic doctrine that is at odds with nationalism and the West's capitalistic values. It has similarities to Communism. For instance, it prohibits lending money for interest.

Most Turks don't practice the religion or even care for it since they see it as the product of a foreign culture that is obsolete, although Islam has been an integral part of their history and identity, and they have not entirely given up their cultural affinities. In spite of the Turkish Language Foundation established by Ataturk to purge the language of its foreign elements, Turkish is still a legacy of centuries of Persian and Arabic influence. It's a country of contrasts where two antagonistic sub-cultures, the modern urban secularists and religious rural conservatists are trying to live together. Secular Turks would rather do their pilgrimage to Ataturk's tomb in Ankara than go to Mecca. In 2000 Turkish police uncovered a plot by a religious extremist group based in Germany to crash an airplane into the tomb . This was a precursor to 9/11, but nobody took heed.

Obama's visit was vital to repairing Turkish-U.S. relations that had deteriorated to the break point since the Iraq invasion. A novel depicting an armed confrontation between Turkey and U.S. became a bestseller and inspired a popular Turkish TV series. The friction between the two countries was not over religion, but the U.S.-Kurdish military cooperation in Northern Iraq and the Bush administration's open hostility for Turkey's refusal of passage of troops for the 2003 invasion. The Obama visit may be the sign of a turning point in U.S. Middle East policy.

Obama visited Ataturk's tomb in the capital city of Ankara and talked about the historical significance of Ataturk's reformation.  He charmed his way into the Turkish National Assembly. He amazed everyone with his knowledge of Turkish history. He also surprised his hosts with a marble engraving that the Ottoman Sultan had sent to George Washington as a gift after the U.S. declaration f independence in 1776, and which few Turks if any knew about. He told his hosts that this was when Turkish-American friendship was born.

Two years ago when King Abdallah of Saudi Arabia visited the Turkish capital he refused to visit Ataturk's tomb and expected Turkey's Islamist president and prime minister to visit him at his hotel, which they did. In contrast, Obama breached the rules of protocol and visited the Turkish Prime Minister at his office. Turkish media commented extensively about Obama's modesty and charisma, and the difference in class and education between the two leaders.