THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
April 6, 2009
JOINT PRESS AVAILABILITY WITH PRESIDENT OBAMA
AND PRESIDENT GUL OF TURKEY
Cankaya Palace
Ankara, Turkey
1:55 P.M. (Local)
PRESIDENT GUL: (As translated.) We are very pleased to host the
President of the United States, Mr. Barack Obama, in Turkey. It would
not be wrong to say that our discussions began in Strasbourg, and the
discussions that we began in Strasbourg, we continued with them today,
both during our meeting and then over lunch. And it was very beneficial.
At the outset of my remarks, I would like to say that we heard that
there’s been an earthquake in Italy — we just heard. And I would like
to express my condolences to the people who lost their lives. We share
the sorrow of the Italian people.
We are very appreciative of the fact that Mr. Obama, having been elected
President, made Turkey one of his stops in his first overseas visit, and
we have been very happy with that — the Turkish people have been very
happy with that.
We have had opportunity to review the strategic dimension of our
relations. Most of our relations seem to be on a military and political
dimension, but we are also determined to move forward on the economic
dimension of our relations. On the area of technology, we’ll continue to
support development of economic and technology cooperation. These are
areas which we place importance on.
In we look at Turkish-American issues, we see that the United States is
very much interested, and must be interested, in important issues around
the world as a superpower, and Turkey is an important country in her
region, and Turkey is very much interested in many subjects. So if we
were to make two separate lists of the issues that our countries are
interested in, we would see that they are very much alike. And so I’m
very pleased to say that Turkey and the United States have great
understanding for each other and they work in cooperation with each
other.
Of course, fighting against terrorism is one of the most important
issues for both of the countries, and the cooperation that we’ve had so
far will be further developed, and in many geographies, from Afghanistan
to the Caucuses to the Balkans to the Middle East, we are working
together and we are determined to continue to work together. And the
President has also shown great interest to Turkey’s relations with the
European Union. We appreciate that very much. We thank him very much for
his words in that regard.
I think that this visit has been very beneficial. I’d like to welcome
the President once again and wish him success.
Please.
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, thank you very much. And, President Gul, you
could not be a better host, and we are grateful to you and your team, as
well as all the people of Turkey for the extraordinary hospitality that
you’ve extended to us.
As you mentioned, we just heard the news of the earthquake in Italy, and
we want to send out condolences to the families there and hope that we
are able to get rescue teams in and that we can minimize the damage as
much as possible moving forward.
I have now spent a week traveling through Europe. And I’ve been
asked,are you trying to make a statement by ending this weeklong trip in
Turkey? And the answer is, yes, I am trying to make a statement. I’m
trying to make a statement about the importance of Turkey not just to
the United States but to the world. This is a country that has been
often said lies at the crossroads between East and West. It’s a country
that possesses an extraordinarily rich heritage, but also represents a
blend of those ancient traditions with a modern nation state that
respects democracy, respects rule of law and is striving towards a
modern economy.
It is a member of NATO and it is also a majority Muslim nation, unique
in that position, and so, as a consequence, has insights into a whole
host of regional and strategic challenges that we may face. And I’ve
been extraordinarily impressed with President Gul and the quality of his
leadership, as well as Prime Minister Erdogan, and so, as a consequence,
I’m excited about the prospects of us working together.
As the President noted, we had a wide-ranging conversation. We thanked
Turkey for its outstanding work in Afghanistan, and we discussed our
strategic review. We have a similar perspective in terms of how to move
forward, and Turkey’s contributions to ISAF and the overarching effort
is going to be critical.
We discussed the progress that’s been made in Iraq and how we can
continue to build on that progress as the U.S. begins to draw down its
troops.
We talked about Middle East peace and how that can be achieved. And we
discussed the need — a shared view for us to reduce the threat of
nuclear proliferation not just in the region, but around the world. And
as President Gul noted, we also talked about business and commerce,
because all too often the U.S.-Turkish relationship has been
characterized just by military issues and yet there’s enormous
possibilities for us to grow the economy and to make sure that trade
between our countries and commerce and the lines of communication
between our two countries continually strengthen, because we think that
that’s going to be good for Turkey, but it’s also going to be good for
the United States.
So we also discussed the issue of terrorism more broadly. And I
reiterated my support to make sure that we are supporting Turkey in
dealing with terrorist threats that may — they may experience.
So, overall it was an extremely productive meeting, and it gives me
confidence that, moving forward, not only are we going to be able to
improve our bilateral relations, but as we work together we’re going to
be able to I think shape a set of strategies that can bridge the divide
between the Muslim world and the West that can make us more prosperous
and more secure.
And so I’m proud that the United States is a partner with Turkey, and we
want to build on that partnership in the years to come.
PRESIDENT GUL: Thank you.
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Okay. We were going to call on one —
PRESIDENT GUL: One and one, yes. Sorry.
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Do you want me to start, or you?
PRESIDENT GUL: You can start, yes.
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Christy Parsons, Chicago Tribune — hometown —
hometown newspaper.
Q Thank you, Mr. President. As a U.S. senator you stood with the
Armenian-American community in calling for Turkey’s acknowledgement of
the Armenian genocide and you also supported the passage of the Armenian
genocide resolution. You said, as President you would recognize the
genocide. And my question for you is, have you changed your view, and
did you ask President Gul to recognize the genocide by name?
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, my views are on the record and I have not changed
views. What I have been very encouraged by is news that under President
Gul’s leadership, you are seeing a series of negotiations, a process, in
place between Armenia and Turkey to resolve a whole host of longstanding
issues, including this one.
I want to be as encouraging as possible around those negotiations which
are moving forward and could bear fruit very quickly very soon. And so
as a consequence, what I want to do is not focus on my views right now
but focus on the views of the Turkish and the Armenian people. If they
can move forward and deal with a difficult and tragic history, then I
think the entire world should encourage them.
And so what I told the President was I want to be as constructive as
possible in moving these issues forward quickly. And my sense is, is
that they are moving quickly. I don’t want to, as the President of the
United States, preempt any possible arrangements or announcements that
might be made in the near future. I just want to say that we are going
to be a partner in working through these issues in such a way that the
most important parties, the Turks and the Armenians, are finally coming
to terms in a constructive way.
Q So if I understand you correctly, your view hasn’t changed, but you’ll
put in abeyance the issue of whether to use that word in the future?
PRESIDENT OBAMA: What I’d like to do is to encourage President Gul to
move forward with what have been some very fruitful negotiations. And
I’m not interested in the United States in any way tilting these
negotiations one way or another while they are having useful
discussions.
Q Thank you.
PRESIDENT GUL: (As translated.) Let me also share my views on this
subject. This is an issue under great discussion. But it is not a legal
or political issue, it’s a historical issue. What is being discussed is
a situation that was experienced in 1915 under the conditions of World
War I, when the Ottoman Empire was battling on four fronts. And
unfortunately, some citizens of the empire then were provoked by some
other countries and there were many internal clashes and many people
lost their lives. And we share the sorrow of all those who lost their
lives, but we have to remember that the Muslim population also suffered
greatly at the same time.
And at the time from the Balkans, from the Caucasus, there were millions
of Muslim Turks who were displaced, who were having to come to travel to
Turkey, and there were many losses as they traveled. So the losses there
took place during the chaotic times of the situation then.
But when the Turkish republic — the modern republic was established,
the Turkish republic did not create this into big issue in order not to
create greater hatred or hostility in future generations. But
unfortunately, these issues politically, especially by the diaspora,
have been brought to the agenda as a way to perhaps cling to their
identity.
And our view to that has been that we should let the historians, the
experts on the subject, sit down and talk about this issue. We are ready
to face the realities, the facts. It cannot be the politicians and the
legal experts who can make decisions here as to what happened when,
under what conditions, and who lost more lives, and who is right and who
is wrong. It is not a parliamentarian, a politician, who can make a
decision on this without knowing the circumstances to the situation.
So that’s why we suggested that a joint history commission be
established and that we would agree to the results or the conclusions of
this commission. And Turkey opened — made its archives available for
that purpose.
And we invited everyone, including the Armenians, and we took one more
step forward and we said that if another country, for example, the
United States or France, if they are very much interested in this issue,
then they, too, could be a part of this joint commission and we would be
ready to listen to the conclusions of that commission.
We, as Turkey, we would like to have good relations with all the
countries in our region. Our relations with Armenia, unfortunately, did
not exist so much, although there are some Armenian citizens in Turkey
now — there are more than 70,000 Armenians who work — live in Turkey,
who send money back to their families and there are some cultural
activities. But we didn’t have other relations. And our goal in order to
normalize these relations, as Mr. President has just said, we initiated
some discussions to normalize relations and we would like to see a good
resolution of these discussions.
No doubt there’s a new situation in the Caucasus. We saw how potential
events could flare up in the Caucuses last year. So it’s important that
in this process we work together to try to resolve the issues in the
Caucasus. We should work to resolve issues between Armenia and
Azerbaijan, and all the conflict in the region so that the area becomes
fertile ground for greater cooperation.
And we have a lot of work, with the best of intentions, in that regard,
and I do believe that when we reach a conclusion we will have resolved
many issues.
Q A question to both Presidents, both leaders. Mr. Obama, during the
Bush presidency there were some difficulties in Turkish-American
relations, and certain steps were taken to resolve those difficulties.
We are in the third month of your presidency and there is a high
expectation in the Turkish public opinion, as well, about
Turkish-American relations. So what will be changes in your outlook on
Turkish-American relations as opposed to the previous administration?
Another question to both Presidents. You said that you discussed
fighting against terrorism. There’s, again, a lot of expectation in the
Turkish public opinion regarding the elimination of the PKK. What sort
of concrete steps will we see in that regard?
PRESIDENT OBAMA: As I mentioned at the outset, I think despite some of
the problems that we saw, beginning in 2003, that you have seen steady
improvement between U.S.-Turkish relations. I don’t think they ever
deteriorated so far that we ceased to be friends and allies. And what I
hope to do is to build on what is already a strong foundation. As I
indicated earlier, commercial ties can be improved. That’s an area where
I think the President and I share a vision.
I think when it comes to our cooperation on terrorism, I’ve been very
clear that PKK is on our terrorist watch list. As a NATO ally of
Turkey’s, we are very comfortable with providing them the assistance
they need to reduce the threat. We have seen that cooperation bear fruit
over the last several months, over the last year. You’ve seen a
lessening of the attacks that have been taking place. We’ll continue to
provide that support, and President Gul and I discussed how we can
provide additional support on that front. But we have been very clear
that terrorism is not acceptable in any circumstances.
I think that where — where there’s the most promise of building
stronger U.S.-Turkish relations is in the recognition that Turkey and
the United States can build a model partnership in which a predominantly
Christian nation and a predominantly Muslim nation, a Western nation and
a nation that straddles two continents — that we can create a modern
international community that is respectful, that is secure, that is
prosperous; that there are not tensions, inevitable tensions, between
cultures, which I think is extraordinarily important.
That’s something that’s very important to me. And I’ve said before that
one of the great strengths of the United States is — although as I
mentioned, we have a very large Christian population, we do not consider
ourselves a Christian nation or a Jewish nation or a Muslim nation; we
consider ourselves a nation of citizens who are bound by ideals and a
set of values.
I think Turkey was — modern Turkey was founded with a similar set of
principles, and yet what we’re seeing is in both countries that promise
of a secular country that is respectful of religious freedom, respectful
of rule of law, respectful of freedom, upholding these values and being
willing to stand up for them in the international stage. If we are
joined together in delivering that message, East and West, to — to the
world, then I think that we can have an extraordinary impact. And I’m
very much looking forward to that partnership in the days to come.
Okay.
PRESIDENT GUL: Okay. Thank you.
END 2:16 P.M. (Local)