Monday, March 9, 2009

Turkish paper: Beautiful American

Beautiful American
Published: 3/9/2009
BY TAHA AKYOL
Davutoglu added that [Hillary] had long been interested in foreign policy and that her power comes not from her name, but her background. A warm temperament and a clear mind obviously signal a better period for Turkish-US relations. [....]
Another very positive side of Clinton’s visit was that it ended the paranoia over ‘moderate Islam.’ The Bush administration didn’t have any policy meant to turn Turkey into a country ‘which applies shariah moderately,’ but terminology mistakes led to paranoia. It’s a good thing that Clinton ended it. She stressed such values as democracy, a secular constitution, freedom of religion, a free market economy, and a sense of responsibility, and said that the US didn’t categorize any country by its religious leanings. 

Now we can approach Turkey’s domestic sociological dynamics and Turkish-US relations free of the paranoia over moderate Islam.

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