{"id":792,"date":"2008-11-05T15:19:31","date_gmt":"2008-11-05T13:19:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.basbasbas.com\/blog\/?p=792"},"modified":"2008-11-05T16:04:32","modified_gmt":"2008-11-05T14:04:32","slug":"obama-elected-the-world-rejoices-turkey-macedonia-perhaps-not-so-much","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.basbasbas.com\/blog\/2008\/11\/05\/obama-elected-the-world-rejoices-turkey-macedonia-perhaps-not-so-much\/","title":{"rendered":"Obama Elected, The World Rejoices &#8211; Turkey, Macedonia Perhaps Not So Much"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"Yep, that's you Barack!\" src=\"http:\/\/www.basbasbas.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/obama-basbasbas-com.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"213\" align=\"left\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Even though sentiments are mixed in the US, around the whole world people have <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cleveland.com\/world\/index.ssf\/2008\/11\/obama_victory_sparks_cheers_ar.html\" target=\"_blank\">reacted<\/a> enthusiastically about <b>Obama<\/b>&#8216;s election. People around the world have had more than enough of Bush&#8217; policies and were hoping for a change. <em>Change<\/em> being the keyword of Obama&#8217;s campaign and McCain being associated with Bush, caused the most people to be more favourable towards Barack Obama. The website <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.iftheworldcouldvote.com\/results\" target=\"_blank\">If the world could vote?<\/a> <\/em>shows that all over the globe, more people were rooting for Obama than for McCain.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Obama is young, &#8216;black&#8217;, a Democrat and instills hope, whereas McCain was seen as very similar to Bush, partly due to employing similar tactics to the ones of former Republican campaigns.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" title=\"The Macedonian Flag\" src=\"http:\/\/www.basbasbas.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/mk.jpg\" alt=\"\" height=\"90\" align=\"right\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">One country that seemed significantly pro-McCain on aforementioned <em>If the world could vote? <\/em>is <strong>Macedonia<\/strong>. Why? The <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Republic_of_Macedonia\" target=\"_blank\">Republic of Macedonia<\/a> borders Bulgaria, Greece, Albania, Serbia and Kosovo. Not the easiest region for a country. Greece refuses to recognize &#8216;Macedonia&#8217; as their name, one of the reasons being a similarly named province in northern Greece, and Macedonia is thus referred to in the UN as The Former Yugoslavic Republic of Macedonia (FYRM). It&#8217;s a very <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Macedonia_naming_dispute\" target=\"_blank\">complex issue<\/a>. McCain has been very outspoken about recognizing Macedonia by its constitutional name, whereas Obama has been more careful about it.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Randy Scheunemann, a McCain adviser <a href=\"http:\/\/the-macedonian-tendency.blogspot.com\/2008\/06\/june-9th-mccain-obama-and-clinton-on.html\" target=\"_blank\">said<\/a> the following about NATO membership bids:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify; padding-left: 30px;\">On Albania, Croatia and Macedonia, Senator McCain has been strongly outspoken in support for including them. They are ready. In the case of Macedonia, they&#8217;ve been a membership action plan for eight or nine cycles.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify; padding-left: 30px;\">With respect to the Greek concerns, the United States recognizes Macedonia under its constitutional name.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify; padding-left: 30px;\">And he certainly hopes that there&#8217;s not going to be this throwback to the 19th century style of Balkan politics, and the Greeks throw a red card on the membership of Macedonia.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Since this is a very big issue in Macedonia, as territorial, cultural and national integrity always are in the Balkans, it&#8217;s no wonder people in Macedonia were hoping for McCain to win.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">As for <strong>Turkey<\/strong>, people might be happy to see a change in government. Bush&#8217; unpopular policies have led to an increase in anti-Americanism around the world. In June, a Pew poll found that out of 47 countries, Turkish people had the least favourable view of the United States (source: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.observer.com\/2008\/turkey-ponders-obama-cure-anti-americanism\" target=\"_blank\">The New York Observer<\/a>). In that sense, Obama will be a welcome change.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">It is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.turkishdailynews.com.tr\/article.php?enewsid=104138\" target=\"_blank\">hoped<\/a> that the new President will aid Turkish efforts against the PKK and <img decoding=\"async\" title=\"The Turkish Flag\" src=\"http:\/\/www.basbasbas.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/tr.jpg\" alt=\"\" height=\"90\" align=\"left\" \/>the Kurdish insurgency in the Iraqi border area, support the EU&#8217;s membership bid and put pressure on European politicians, and support Turkey in its process of becoming a modern, democratic country. It&#8217;s not expected that Obama will aid Turkey&#8217;s military efforts or put significant pressure on the EU to get them to admit Turkey.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Moreover, just one day before the elections, Obama <a href=\"http:\/\/www.turkishdailynews.com.tr\/article.php?enewsid=119100\" target=\"_blank\">renewed his commitment to recognize the Armenian genocide<\/a>, a very sensitive issue in Turkey. McCain &#8220;never pledged to label the Armenian killings as genocide and is seen by the U.S. Armenian community as a politician against or indifferent to Armenian matters&#8221; (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.turkishdailynews.com.tr\/article.php?enewsid=119100\" target=\"_blank\">Turkish Daily News<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Turkey&#8217;s foreign policy adviser to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan said &#8220;the formal recognition by the United States of genocide would seriously damage U.S.-Turkish ties and hurt Turkey&#8217;s efforts for reconciliation with Armenia&#8221; after meeting Phil Gordon last week, a senior foreign policy adviser to Obama.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Turkey is an important ally (NATO member) and trade partner to both the US and EU, as it has a stabilizing presence in the Middle East, often mediating in Arabic-Israeli talks.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Looks like Obama will have a lot on his hands when he takes office in January.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Increase your understanding! Here&#8217;s some useful links:<\/p>\n<ul><font size=2><\/p>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.turkishdailynews.com.tr\/article.php?enewsid=119100\" target=\"_blank\">Obama renews commitment to &#8216;Armenian genocide&#8217; recognition (Turkish Daily News &#8211; 3 Nov 2008)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/the-macedonian-tendency.blogspot.com\/2008\/06\/june-9th-mccain-obama-and-clinton-on.html\" target=\"_blank\">McCain, Obama and Clinton on Macedonia (The Macedonian Tendency &#8211; 9 Jun 2008)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cleveland.com\/world\/index.ssf\/2008\/11\/obama_victory_sparks_cheers_ar.html\" target=\"_blank\">Obama victory sparks cheers around the globe (Cleveland.com &#8211; 5 Nov 2008)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.observer.com\/2008\/turkey-ponders-obama-cure-anti-americanism\" target=\"_blank\">Turkey Ponders Obama As Cure for Anti-Americanism (The New York Observer &#8211; 1 Jan 2008)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.iftheworldcouldvote.com\/results\" target=\"_blank\">If The World Could Vote? Results<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.turkishdailynews.com.tr\/article.php?enewsid=104138\" target=\"_blank\">The next US President and Turkey (Turkish Daily News &#8211; 10 May 2008)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Armenian_genocide\" target=\"_blank\">The Armenian Genocide (Wikipedia)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Turkish-Kurdish_conflict\" target=\"_blank\">Turkish-Kurdish Conflict (Wikipedia)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Macedonia_naming_dispute\" target=\"_blank\">Macedonia Naming Dispute (Wikipedia)<\/a><\/li>\n<p><\/font><\/ul>\n<p><strong>Like this post? 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Change being the keyword of Obama&#8217;s campaign and McCain being associated with Bush, caused the most people to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33,23],"tags":[684,671,674,670,683,675,650,672,685,378,682,613,681,673,677,676,680,362,678,679],"class_list":["post-792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-world","tag-anti-americanism","tag-armenia","tag-balkan-politics","tag-balkans","tag-bush","tag-elections-2008","tag-eu","tag-greece","tag-kurdish","tag-macedonia","tag-mccain","tag-middle-east","tag-nato","tag-obama","tag-phil-gordon","tag-randy-scheunemann","tag-republic-of-macedonia","tag-turkey","tag-united-states","tag-us"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.basbasbas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.basbasbas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.basbasbas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.basbasbas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.basbasbas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=792"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/www.basbasbas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":797,"href":"https:\/\/www.basbasbas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792\/revisions\/797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.basbasbas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.basbasbas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.basbasbas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}