Obama trip to Turkey marks first visit to Muslim country as president
Picture from Barack Obama's photostream on Flickr.com.
Barack Obama will head to Turkey following the G20 summit in London for his first visit to a Muslim country in power.
The U.S. President is expected to address Turkey’s parliament and talk with opposition parties during the trip.
But aides have stressed the visit is not being planned as a platform for speaking to the wider Muslim world, according to Hurriyet newspaper.
U.S. officials do not want the visit to extend beyond bilateral affairs, the paper reports.
However, Obama is expected to take part in a major dialogue conference being organized in Istanbul.
The UN Alliance of Civilizations Forum will bring together civil society organizations from around the world to discuss mechanisms for improving inter-cultural understanding.
The forum will address how cultural understanding is affected by issues relating to new media, women, youth, education and migration.
Spanish President José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will join Turkish premier Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as conference guests.
If Obama does make the conference, it will further reinforce the shift in U.S. foreign policy under his leadership which has already seen him take signficant steps to bring Iran and other Middle Eastern states into dialogue.
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