Obama in Iraq on secret trip

HELLO.

BARACK Obama has jetted in to Iraq for a brief look at a war he opposed as a candidate and now vows to end as commander in chief.
The US President arrived unannounced hours after a car bomb exploded in a Shiite neighbourhood of the capital Baghdad.
It was a deadly reminder of the violence that has claimed the lives at least 4,266 members of the US military since March 2003.
The visit came at the end of a long overseas trip that included economic and NATO summits in Europe and two days in Turkey.
Shortly before leaving Turkey, he was blasted for a "lack of courtesy" in calling for the country to reckon with its past.
Nationalist leader Devlet Bahceli said he can't tolerate the US President's call for Turkey to overcome decades of antagonism with neighbouring Armenia.
History
Turkey’s mass expulsion of Armenians during World War I — which Armenians say was part of a genocide that claimed 1.5million lives — is rarely discussed in Turkey or taught in schools.
But it is increasingly becoming a topic as the country becomes more open on the road toward European Union membership.
President Obama avoided the term “genocide" yesterday when he addressed Turkish lawmakers over the bloodshed in the final days of the Ottoman Empire.
Turkey rejects the view that there was a systematic campaign to wipe out the Armenian population.

Protests ... against Obama
Bahceli, the leader of the Nationalist Action Party, has accused Armenia of carrying out a “shameless" campaign to condemn Turkey for genocide and claim lands in eastern Turkey.
Turkey fears that, if the genocide claim is recognised, Armenians will demand compensation — either money or lost land.
Bahceli said in response to Obama: “I want to announce from here that we’re rejecting his request to accept false claims and lies which have nothing to do with our history.
“It is up to President Obama whether to face grief and shame in their own history.”
As a presidential candidate, Mr Obama said the killings amounted to genocide. He did not repeat that charge yesterday, but he said, in response to a question, that he had not changed his views.
Turkey is struggling to counter Armenian Diaspora groups that are pushing European governments and the US to declare the killings genocide.
Mr Obama’s call focused attention on the issue with the approach of April 24, the date Armenians mark as the start of the killings.
Some ordinary Turks said fairness should prevail.
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“The incidents were first started by Armenians.”
As the Muslim Ottoman empire faltered, minority Armenian Christians began asserting their identity.
During World War I, amid reports of Armenian collusion with the enemy army of Christian Czarist Russia, Armenians were forced out of towns and villages throughout the Turkish heartland of Anatolia. Many died.
Turkey says the death toll has been inflated and those killed were victims of civil war and unrest. Turks who describe it as genocide have on occasion been prosecuted.
“Politicians and historians will solve this together,” said Necdet Koksal, a 59-year-old cab driver.

NO NOS MAMEN MAS GALLO.

GUERRILLERO VALENCIANO