Erdogan meets Obama, talks about 'model partnership'

President Barack Obama met late on Tuesday in New York with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayep Erdogan who described the US-Turkish relationship as a "model partnership"."Turkey is a NATO ally, a great friend, and partner on a whole host of issues. I want to thank him for all the work that we have done together - the cooperation in Afghanistan, the work that we most recently did in trying to provide freedom for Libya, and, in addition, the NATO obligations that both of us carry out together, most recently symbolized by the agreement of Turkey to host a missile defense radar," said Obama. The remarks came before meeting with Erdogan in the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in Manhattan. "Prime Minister Erdogan has shown great leadership on a range of issues and promoting democracy. And we are very grateful to him for the work that we have done together," he added. Obama extended his condolences to Erdogan for the loss of life after the explosion in Ankara yesterday, saying that this incident "reminds us that terrorism exists in many parts of the world, and that Turkey and the United States are going to be strong partners in preventing terrorism. In return, Erdogan described the Turkish-US relationship as "a model partnership" and an ongoing process which includes the "fighting against terrorism based on a common platform." "We have, unfortunately, lost three citizens today as a result of the blast in Ankara, but in the later hours, there was another attack in Sirt, in a city in the eastern part of Turkey, where four young girls were killed as a result of an attack in a car, and these were civilian citizens. And so these are events which give us great sadness," he added. Erdogan said he is not "very optimistic" as for whether or not "we can completely eradicate terrorism ... but I think that we have a lot of room to work together to make sure that we minimize terrorism to the lowest possible extent." "I have also recently visited Egypt, Tunisia, and Libya, and we have also worked together in those countries, and Afghanistan as well, and also in Iraq. So these are many of the areas where we will continue to talk to each other, so that Turkey and the United States continue with this model partnership to move into a better future," he concluded.