Turkey pleased with cabinet

The reported choice of top diplomat, as well as others in defense and national security, whom officials see as experienced and centrist figures with a positive understanding of Turkey.

The announcement on Clinton is due to come at a news conference in Chicago, said officials on Obama's transition team. The incoming president has also asked Robert Gates, the current defense secretary, to keep his job for at least another year, sources close to the president-elect said earlier. For the important post of the national security advisor, the official closest to the president, Obama has chosen retired Gen. James Jones, a former top NATO commander, according to U.S. media. "We have very good relations with these three figures. We believe Obama is forming a very good national security cabinet," said one Turkish official privately.

One Turkish concern over the future of the U.S.-Turkish relationship is Obama's pledge during the primaries he would recognize the World War I-era killings of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire as genocide if elected president.

Obama more sincere
Like Obama, Clinton also made a similar promise during the primaries to recognize the Armenian killings as genocide. But although Sen. Clinton also sponsored a genocide resolution in the present Senate, some Armenian groups said she objected to another similar legislation in the House of Representatives in October 2007. As a result, most Armenians found Obama more sincere on Armenian-related matters and the Armenian National Committee of America, the largest U.S. Armenian group, decided to back him against Clinton in the primaries.

Turkey also had good relations with the United States during the term of former President Bill Clinton, Hillary's husband.

A U.S. move to provide the Turkish military with intelligence against the Kurdistan Workers' Party terrorists in northern Iraq took effect in late 2007 under the supervision of Gates and Turkish officials were pleased he would most likely retain his job.

Gates in late 2006 replaced the unpopular Donald Rumsfeld, who until the end of his tenure remained consistently angry with Turkey over Ankara's refusal to help the Iraq invasion by U.S.-led forces in 2003.

Amid the Iraq dispute in 2003 and 2004, the Turkish military was in a serious friction with the U.S. Central Command responsible for Iraq, and it was Jones, as the top NATO commander, who worked as a kind of mediator to restore the estranged relationship with Ankara. "Jones did a very good job to improve the military-to-military ties," said one analyst here. "From Turkey's viewpoint, Clinton, Gates and Jones are probably the best trio of picks by Obama for his national security team," said the analyst.