Obama’s plane Air Force I arrived to Ankara Esenboga Airport on April 5th, Sunday night, and he went to hotel that night. On April 6th, Obama’s trip started formally. First of all, he visited Anitkabir, the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk who is the founder of modern Turkey; therefore, he is appreciated because of this trip since he showed his regard to the modern, secular Turkey and its founder. He left a note to guess notebook of Anitkabir concluding with Ataturk’s famous quote: “Peace in the world, peace in the country.” After that, he visited Abdullah Gul, the president of Turkey; furthermore, he went to the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM) to make a speech. This speech was the most important speech during his trip, and I watched it live.

In his speech, Obama firstly mentioned that Ataturk’s biggest heritage for the Turkish nation is the democracy and Turkish Republic. In my opinion, this was a terrific start to capture the crowd’s attention and get their admiration. Then he reminded the beginning of the Turkish-American relationship in sovereignty of the Ottoman Empire by mentioning about a story about George Washington and Sultan Abdulmecid. Obama then repeated his support for Turkey to get into European Union. Another topic of his speech was the Turkish-Armenian problem, and he stated that the problems should be faced by facing the history and the truth. This point was one of the few points that the Turkish politicians are not satisfied by Obama’s speech.

There were two times that acclamation raised in the assembly. First of them was when he said that Turkey is a country which gets its beauty from the blend of the East and the West. In this case, he said that he will not be happy to see Turkey to be separated into two parts such as East and West and he is against the secession. Another time that the acclamation raised in the assembly was when he noticed that there are many Muslims in the family of US citizens; furthermore, he is one of them. By saying these, Obama showed his sympathy to Muslims and endeavours to erase the bad image of US for Muslims which has been created by the previous presidents.

On April 7th, today, Obama went to Istanbul to complete his Turkey trip by having a dinner at the Alliance of Civilizations and visiting the historical places such as Sultanahmet Mosque and Hagia Sophia.

In short, Obama is really admired by the Turkish folk at the end of his trip because of his graceful attitudes. He organized little meetings with different people from different socio-economic classes, including the youth, politicians and folk. Again, he showed his leadership to all the world and he is starting to earn a wonderful reputation for the United States by establishing new relationships with every country without any prejudices.

So, this choice of Obama can be seen as his first step to peace with Muslim countries and USA. In my opinion, Obama is the only leader to end the prejudices of both sides, Muslims and American people. Besides, everything about Obama’s peace establishing plans for Muslim countries will be clarified next month; I’m waiting curiously to see what will happen.

Obama said, “My job to the Muslim world is to communicate that the Americans are not your enemy. He continued, “We sometimes make mistakes. We have not been perfect.”

These interview of US’s new president made clear that their target are Islamic terrorist organizations, not innocent Muslims. By giving the first interview to an Arabic TV and using peaceful words way different from the previous presidents, Barack Obama really gives an undertaking of hope.

This is the meaning of our liberty and our creed – why men and women and children of every race and every faith can join in celebration across this magnificent mall, and why a man whose father less than sixty years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath.

These words of Obama clearly explained that he was proud of being the first African-American president of US, and he was also proud of mentioning that everyone is equal. By the way, I really appreciate how Barack Obama brought US from the years of racism to these days. In addition, when I saw Obama’s children before he went to the stage, I got a feeling that they had the same light in their eyes with their father; furthermore, I wondered if one of them would be the first woman president of US.  It may happen, why not?

In brief, I became very pleased as a Turkish citizen after Obama’s messages contained in his speech because his speech called out to everyone in the world without any distinction, and I can get the signals of the world peace this speech. I hope that Obama will show his courage to support the world peace in his first 100 days and will be the world’s hope. Congratulations to all US and world citizens!