Obama to visit Turkey

[David Guyatt]

I wonder if he intends to speak about Sibel Edmonds important revelations about the corrupt and traitorous activities of the American-Turkish Council:

http://www.deeppoliticsforum.com/forums/....php?t=852

My guess is that this will not be on the agenda...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7929841.stm

Obama trip to Turkey within weeks
President Barack Obama will visit Turkey "in a month or so", US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said on a visit to Ankara.

She met Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the first visit by a member of the new US administration to Turkey.

Turkey's foreign minister said Ankara was ready to re-launch indirect talks between Syria and Israel.

Mrs Clinton said the importance of building relations between Israel and Syria could not be overstated.

Turkey was mediating those talks until recently, but Foreign Minister Ali Babacan said any request to resume that role must come from both sides.

"President Obama will be visiting Turkey within the next month or so," said Mrs Clinton, at a joint news conference with Mr Babacan. "The exact date will be announced shortly."

'Low perceptions'

The two allies would consult on the safest and most effective way to withdraw US forces from Iraq, she added.

Mr Obama is due to head for Europe next month to attend the G20 summit in London on 2 April.

Ankara has already indicated it will allow the US to use its territory and bases for the planned withdrawal of troops.

The war in Iraq was just one reason perception of the US plunged to a historic low in the major Muslim nation, says the BBC's Sarah Rainsford in Istanbul, and Mrs Clinton wants to reach out to that public.

In addition to her formal meetings, Mrs Clinton is making an appearance on a popular daytime chat show, hosted by four women.

It is the final stop of a week-long foreign tour by America's top diplomat.

Our correspondent says after a fraught relationship with the Bush administration, the visit is seen as a chance to reaffirm the two countries' alliance.

Turkey calls the US secretary of state's trip "important confirmation" of its strategic relationship with America.

Analysts in Turkey see the visit as a sign the Obama administration plans to revitalise its support for Turkey's EU accession efforts.

Our correspondent says Turkey is expected to try to ensure President Obama does not refer to the mass killing of Armenians in 1915 as genocide, in his speech on the anniversary of the forced deportations next month.

[David Guyatt]

Dozens charged over Turkey 'plot'

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7936828.stm

Dozens charged over Turkey 'plot'



State prosecutors in Turkey have charged a further 56 people over an alleged ultra-nationalist plot to topple the Islamist-rooted government.

The names of those charged have not been released, but local media say they include two former army generals.

Another 86 people are already on trial accused of involvement in the plot, allegedly meant to stoke unrest and provoke the army into launching a coup.

Critics say the ruling AK Party is simply targeting its secular opponents.

Army 'touched'

Prosecutors filed a second indictment on Tuesday - 1,909 pages in length.

It charges 12 of the 56 with being leaders of the alleged plot, known as Ergenekon.

If reports of two generals being charged are correct, they would be the first ever tried on such a charge in a civilian court, says the BBC's Sarah Rainsford in Istanbul.

The army has until recently been regarded as "untouchable", the ultimate guarantor of the secular state.

The court has two weeks to approve the prosecutor's indictment. The new defendants would then join the mass trial that has already been under way for six months inside a high security prison.

Many Turks have talked darkly of a "deep state" - groups they suspect of links to the security forces since the 1950s, formed to carry out illegal activities, to "protect" the republic, our correspondent says.

She says that case was widely welcomed at first as a chance to expose and eradicate those illicit gangs.

But as the arrests have spread, the ruling AK Party, which has its roots in political Islam, has increasingly been accused of hijacking the case to silence its secular critics.

The party was the subject of a failed attempt to close it down last year, over claims that it was undermining the strict secular basis of the Turkish state.

(my bolding)