Obama to Turkish students: "You can choose to make new bridges instead of new walls."

[jefferson_dem]

:patriot:

Obama ends Turkish visit with student town hall
By MARK S. SMITH – 18 minutes ago

ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) — Barack Obama wrapped up his first foreign trip as president with a request of the world: Look past his nation's stereotypes and flaws. "You will find a partner and a friend in the United States of America," he declared Tuesday.

"The world will be what you make of it," Obama told college students in Turkey's largest city. "You can choose to make new bridges instead of new walls."

Promising a "new chapter in American engagement" with the rest of the world, Obama said the United States needs to be more patient in its dealings. And he said the rest of the world needs a better sense "that change is possible so we don't have to always be stuck with the same arguments."

The students formed a tight circle around the new U.S. president, who slowly paced a sky-blue rug while answering their questions. He promised to end the town hall-style session before the Muslim call to prayer.

Obama rejected "stereotypes" about America, including that it has become selfish and crass. "I'm here to tell you that's not the country I know and not the country I love," the president said. "America, like every other nation, has made mistakes and has its flaws, but for more than two centuries it has strived" to seek a more perfect union.

He repeated his pledge to rebuild relations between the United States and the Muslim world.

"I am personally committed to a new chapter in American engagement," Obama said. "We can't afford to talk past one another and focus only on our differences, or to let the walls of mistrust go up around us."

Obama's message was being warmly received by Arabs and Muslims. In an interview published Tuesday, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem called his words "important" and "positive."

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