Several Turkish news sources are reporting that President Barack Obama has accepted his friend President Tayyip Erdoğan’s invitation to open the Turkish-American Culture and Civilization Center in Maryland, based on comments made by Turkey’s foreign minister on April 19.
Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, who was on a three-day visit to Washington, visited the center that also has a medium-sized mosque, and lunched with representatives from the American Muslim community.
“During a phone call, President [Recep Tayyip] Erdoğan asked President [Barack] Obama to accompany him in opening the center together and President Obama accepted his offer in principle,’” Çavuşoğlu told the representatives.
If Obama’s schedule allows at the time of the opening, he will accompany Erdoğan.
Turkey helped fund the building of the $100 million-dollar mega mosque, which Erdogan visited in May of 2013. The complex consists of a coffee house, gift shops, a cultural center, an amphitheater and exhibition hall, a computer lab, a library, a Turkish bath/hamam, a guest house, and — of course — a mosque. The Turkish president, a Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood supporter who has a longstanding record of making anti-Semitic statements, promised to come back for the opening.
But according to Today’s Zaman, the United States government is denying the reports that Obama will join him for the event.
The United States has rejected a remark by Turkish foreign minister who claimed that President Barack Obama agreed to participate in a joint ceremony to open a Turkish-American cultural complex that also includes a mosque.
A senior US administration official said the opening of a mosque is not among Obama’s travel program items or engagements. On Sunday, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu cited a telephone conversation between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Obama, who reportedly “said yes” in principle when Erdoğan invited him to open the mosque in Maryland. Çavuşoğlu was speaking at the complex.
It seems as though the Obama administration’s attempt to bow out of an excruciatingly bad photo-op was misinterpreted.
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