A black man in the White House portends change

President-elect Barack Obama’s complicated family history is also testimony to the culturally and racially interactive world we live in today. In this sense, Senator Obama’s landslide victory, 40 years after the assassination of Martin Luther King, is also evidence that if one has a dream and faith in that dream, then it will come true no matter how long it takes.

There are of course other important messages embedded in this historic turn of events. One is that no matter how many conservative and reactionary elements resist change, seeing this as the single most important threat to their existence, objective developments in society and the world will sweep them aside eventually. In this respect, this victory has shown, and we do believe that there is a message in this for Turkey also, that if you try to conduct politics on the basis of racial and religious prejudices, you may make some headway, but in the final analysis you will be left behind.

In the end Obama was elected on his platform of change despite his race, and that he was supposedly “tainted with Muslim blood.” Having said all this, even President-elect Obama knows that we live in a very real world. It is not for nothing, after all, that one American commentator after another is saying that Obama has a massive burden on his shoulders of now fulfilling his election promises. That he will not be able to fully do so is apparent even at this moment and one does not have to be a cynic to say it because it is just the way the world is.

We have to recall that our own Justice and Development Party, or AKP, was elected not once but twice, on the promise of changing the status quo and ushering in a new era for the country. It was this promise that also made liberal secularists in Turkey support the party initially. The AKP however turned into a bastion of the same status quo that it was supposed to change. So the risk of elected leaders forgetting their promises in the face of the facts of life, is always there.

Although it was not the main concern on the minds of the electorate in these elections, Iraq will remain a major issue for the Obama administration. It is clear that the promise to pull back troops according to a set date will have to be honored to an extent. This and other factors related to the Iraq issue will continue to make Turkish-American relations vitally important for the Obama administration. Their campaign document on foreign policy openly points to this fact.

It can be expected, therefore, that the new administration will want to make itself known to Ankara as soon as possible to ensure that the political infrastructure for its Iraq policy is laid out soundly. There is some concern in all this as to how the Obama administration is going to handle the Armenian genocide issue, come April. He has committed himself very strongly as far as the American Armenian community is concerned.

But whether Obama will want to be the cause of a major crisis in relations with Turkey at a time when what is needed is just the opposite, remains to be seen. What is certain is that he will have to perform a very subtle balancing act. Of course, the fact that there is a path between Turkey and Armenia aimed at normalizing relations will lighten his burden. He can after all point to this and say that there is no point causing tension at a time when Turkey and Armenia are engaged in a search for better ties.

If, on top of this, the talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh yield positive results, this will also help the Obama administration against the Armenian lobby, as its interests lie in seeing a stable Caucasus that is also American friendly. Firstly, however, we have to see who it is that President-elect Obama chooses for posts such as Secretary of State and Defense. This will also give an indication of the kind of policies he hopes to pursue.

Then there is the “Biden factor.” We have to wait and see how active Joe Biden will be as vice president in foreign policy administration. These however are all questions that we can leave until tomorrow and in the meantime we can enjoy, and perhaps even revel in, the symbolism of Barack Obama’s election as the 44th President of the United States of America. Reality will, after all, have its day anyway.