![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/OB-RL765_Obama__G_20120120122842.jpg\" "\\"OB-RL765_Obama__G_20120120122842\\"")
AP\/Charles Dharapak<\/p>\nAP\/Charles Dharapak<\/p>\n
President Barack Obama talks with Turkey\u2019s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan during a family photo at the G20 Summit in Cannes, France, Thursday, Nov. 3, 2011.<\/p>\n
ISTANBUL\u2014This week may have started a little uncomfortably for Turkey-U.S. relations, but it ended with something akin to a diplomatic love-in.<\/p>\n
Rewind to Monday, and Texas governor and presidential hopeful Rick Perry was causing outrage across Turkey, claiming the country was ruled by \u201cwhat many perceive to be Islamic terrorists,\u201d and suggesting it should be booted out of NATO.<\/p>\n
By Thursday, however, Mr. Perry had withdrawn from the race for the Republican nomination and on Friday President Barack Obama named Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan as one of five leaders with which he\u2019d formed \u201ca bond of trust.\u201d<\/p>\n
Turkish media, which had reacted furiously to Governor Perry\u2019s remarks, rejoiced when he announced on that he was suspending his bid, gleefully suggesting that the stumble on Turkey had killed his campaign.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing against Turkey didn\u2019t work out so well,\u201d quipped Turkish TV channel NTV. \u201cGovernor Perry, who is illiterate about Turkey, has thrown in the towel early,\u201d said tub-thumping Turkish daily Sabah.<\/p>\n
That gloating was bolstered on Friday with news that President Obama had lauded his relationship with Prime Minister Erdogan in an interview with Time Magazine.<\/p>\n
In an interview with Time\u2019s Editor-at-Large Fareed Zakaria, Mr. Obama named Turkish PM Erdogan alongside German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, and British Prime Minister David Cameron among leaders that he was able to forge \u201cbonds of trust.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that if you ask them, Angela Merkel or Prime Minister Singh or President Lee or Prime Minister Erdogan or David Cameron would say, we have a lot of trust and confidence in the President,\u201d Time quotes the U.S. president as saying. \u201cThat\u2019s part of the reason we\u2019ve been able to forge these close working relationships and gotten a whole bunch of stuff done.\u201d<\/p>\n
The president\u2019s strong backing of Ankara capped a whirlwind week for Turkish-U.S. relations that at times resembled soap-opera rather than diplomacy. Analysts say Washington\u2019s move to immediately to condemn Mr. Perry\u2019s remarks and stress the importance of the alliance with Ankara underlines how the partnership has been bolstered in recent months by Turkey\u2019s strong backing of pro-democracy movements during Arab Spring uprisings.<\/p>\n
Turkish and U.S. diplomats say they cannot remember a time when cooperation between Ankara and Washington was closer, citing that President Barack Obama called Turkey\u2019s prime minister more than any other leader except Britain\u2019s prime minister in 2011.<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Erdogan certainly seemed confident on Friday that the relationship was strong, using Governor Perry\u2019s comments to jibe at Turkish opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s the difference between Rick Perry, who makes ignorant statements about Turkey, and the chairman of our main opposition party? One lives in Texas and one lives in Ankara,\u201d Mr. Erdogan said.<\/p>\n
via Soap-Opera Week for Turkey-U.S. Relations Underlines Partnership\u2019s Strength – Emerging Europe Real Time – WSJ.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
AP\/Charles Dharapak President Barack Obama talks with Turkey\u2019s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan during a family photo at the G20 Summit in Cannes, France, Thursday, Nov. 3, 2011. ISTANBUL\u2014This week may have started a little uncomfortably for Turkey-U.S. relations, but it ended with something akin to a diplomatic love-in. Rewind to Monday, and Texas governor […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":50210,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[7832],"class_list":["post-50208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-usa","tag-rick-perry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50208\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}