Bush touts Turkey as model for Iraq, hears worries over Kurds

US president says Ankara ‘ought to be given’ EU date; large crowds protest

Turkish demonstrators are reflected as they march in Istanbul, Turkey, yesterday, during a protest just hours before the arrival of the US President George W. Bush in the city.

By Olivier Knox - Agence France-Presse

ISTANBUL - US President George W. Bush worked yesterday to mend fences with Turkey after strains over the Iraq war, touting the ally as a model for the Muslim world ahead of a NATO summit here. Bush’s maiden visit to Turkey was marked by tight security that made central Ankara a virtual ghost town and saw police contend with tens of thousands of slogan-chanting demonstrators protesting NATO and his arrival in Istanbul.

The trip was clouded by an Al Qaeda-linked Islamic group’s threat to behead three Turkish hostages in Iraq.

Turkish officials, meanwhile, expressed concern over possible moves by the Iraqi Kurds to break away from Baghdad and urged Bush to take action against separatist Turkish Kurd rebels hiding in northern Iraq.

“I appreciate very much the example that your country has set, on how to be a Muslim country, and at the same time a country which embraces democracy and rule of law and freedom,” Bush said with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan at his side.

The US leader later met here with top religious leaders from Turkey’s Muslim, Jewish, Armenian Orthodox, and Syriac Orthodox communities, as well as Istanbul’s mufti and the Greek Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Vartholomaios I.

White House aides said the visit served to highlight Turkey’s pluralism and religious toleration.

The US president also renewed support for Turkey’s efforts to join the European Union, saying Ankara “ought to be given a date” by Brussels for eventual accession.

Bush was to attend NATO’s summit here today and tomorrow after winning the alliance’s pledge — pending final approval in Istanbul — to help train Iraq’s new security forces.

A string of bomb attacks and protests preceded Bush’s visit to the Turkish capital, where life came to a near standstill yesterday as authorities banned traffic and deployed thousands of police. In Istanbul, a noisy rally tens of thousands strong got under way four hours before he arrived, with banners and slogans including “Yankees Go Home, This Country is Ours” and “United States, Assassins, Leave the Middle East.” In talks, Erdogan stressed the importance Turkey places on Iraq’s territorial integrity and insisted that no ethnic group should be privileged, an official close to the prime minister said.