To be in Washington, there wouldn't be better timing than this.

- 09 / 05 / 2008 16:33

A three-day trip to the U.S. capital to attend the fourth conference organized by the Brookings Institute and Sabancı University is enough to be swept into the presidential election wind blowing in the United States.

  When I stepped into Washington together with a group of journalists, the results of the North Carolina and Indiana primaries had just been announced. Barrack Obama leads in North Carolina as Hillary Rodham Clinton leaves Obama behind  within an inch in India.

Comments on the results are being made all day long on televisions. It is “arithmetically” impossible for Ms. Clinton to win the race, say experts. But she doesn't seem to call a quit. Ms. Clinton will continue to the race and be in debt more for campaign expenditures. How about the atmosphere in Washington? Whose side is the wind blowing on?

Panelists we listened during the dinner held at the Brookings Institute are the names close to the election campaigns. William Galston was once political adviser to former U.S. President Bill Clinton, and Philip Gordon is one of Obama's advisers. Both Galston and Gordon are in the opinion that Obama will be the next president of the United States. “The U.S. is ready for an African-American president,” says Galston.

Good messages from Obama

And Gordon believes compared to the Republican candidate John McCain, Obama gives positive messages on the issues that American people are sensitive, so he has more chance.

What are these positive messages? U.S. will immediately leave Iraq. The U.S. Guantanamo Base will be shut down promptly. More sensitive policies toward global warming will be followed.

Gordon is of the opinion that Obama's Turkey policy will be different from his policy in the Middle East and he will create a different ground of dialogue with Turkey.

In the following day, after the panel at the Brookings, one of the most high-profile diplomats in the U.S. politics Nicholas Burns gives a conference. The Burns conference is the fourth of a series organized by the Sabancı University and the Brookings. Previously, Madeleine Albright, former State Secretary; Richard Holbrooke, former ambassador to the United Nations; and Paul Wolfowitz, former deputy defense secretary, were the speakers of the panel held at Istanbul Sabancı University.

Burns short while ago retired from the office of Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs. And this is his first conference in the retirement.

The most successful Muslim country:

Burns has closely followed Turkey since 1990, i.e. since the late Turkish President Turgut Özal period. Importance of Turkey hasn't been diminished, it's increased after the Cold War, contrary to the claims, he says. Today, Turkey is a country extremely important for both U.S. and the European Union, adds Burns, terming Turkey as the “most successful Muslim country in the world.”

He gives a description of how the new president's Turkey policy should be:

* The new U.S. president should give Turkey support in its fight against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

* Should support Turkey's EU bid, find ways to convince German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy both lack appetite for Turkey's accession to EU and make them understand that if Europe closes the door on Turkey, it will miss a historic opportunity.

* He should also support Turkey to maintain its route to a modern, laic and democratic country in the future.

Burns, in the meantime, emphasizes that Turkey, in return, should do its part in finding solution to the Cyprus issue and opening of the Heybeliada Seminary.The year of 2009 will be a brand new era for Turkish-American relations, he forecasts.