No clue on what ’model partnership’ means
Güncelleme Tarihi:
Hürriyet Daily News
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Nisan 18, 2009 00:00
ANKARA - Turkey is uncertain what the U.S. president referred to when describing the relationship as a ’model partnership.’ The Foreign Ministry penned a wide-ranging memo on the outcomes of Obama’s visit that stated ’no information on the substance of a model partnership’
Turkey is still uncertain to what U.S. President Barack Obama referred to when he described relations between Turkey and the United States as a "model partnership."
The Foreign Ministry has just completed a broad memo on the outcomes of Obama’s visit to Turkey on April 6 and 7, after analyzing the full records of his meetings with President Abdullah Gül and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. One interesting point is that Obama did not actually use "model partnership" during the talks but mentioned it in the joint press conference with Gül. American diplomats both in Ankara and Washington prefer to use the concept of "strategic partnership," according to the memo. It also noted "there was no information on the substance of a model partnership."
On the possibility of recognizing the 1915 Armenian killings as "genocide" in the presidential statement expected to be issue on April 24, the ministry believes Obama will not risk losing Turkey and thus will not categorize the killings as genocide. Obama’s emphasis on the mutual efforts of Turkey and Armenia to normalize ties is evident to this end, the ministry believes.
The ministry said it was not thinking that Obama’s much-criticized description of the Kurdish minority was on purpose. On Iran, Obama said the U.S. intention to talk to Tehran does not mean that Washington would ignore current problems stemming from Iran’s potential nuclear work.
Meanwhile, the U.S. top general Micheal Mullen is planned to visit Turkey next month to discuss the fight against terrorism. The visit would be coupled with that of Robert Gates, Secretary of Defense, who would raise Washington’s request to use Turkish territory during the withdrawal of troops from Iraq. Obama assured Turkey that "the intelligence sharing mechanism" will go along and that utmost cooperation will be provided to Turkish military.
The Foreign Ministry has just completed a broad memo on the outcomes of Obama’s visit to Turkey on April 6 and 7, after analyzing the full records of his meetings with President Abdullah Gül and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. One interesting point is that Obama did not actually use "model partnership" during the talks but mentioned it in the joint press conference with Gül. American diplomats both in Ankara and Washington prefer to use the concept of "strategic partnership," according to the memo. It also noted "there was no information on the substance of a model partnership."
On the possibility of recognizing the 1915 Armenian killings as "genocide" in the presidential statement expected to be issue on April 24, the ministry believes Obama will not risk losing Turkey and thus will not categorize the killings as genocide. Obama’s emphasis on the mutual efforts of Turkey and Armenia to normalize ties is evident to this end, the ministry believes.
The ministry said it was not thinking that Obama’s much-criticized description of the Kurdish minority was on purpose. On Iran, Obama said the U.S. intention to talk to Tehran does not mean that Washington would ignore current problems stemming from Iran’s potential nuclear work.
Meanwhile, the U.S. top general Micheal Mullen is planned to visit Turkey next month to discuss the fight against terrorism. The visit would be coupled with that of Robert Gates, Secretary of Defense, who would raise Washington’s request to use Turkish territory during the withdrawal of troops from Iraq. Obama assured Turkey that "the intelligence sharing mechanism" will go along and that utmost cooperation will be provided to Turkish military.