President Barack Obama’s speech to the Turkish parliament in Ankara and his town hall Q&A with 100 students in Istanbul, in the hells of his Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s visit, signals the upgrading of Turkish place in America’s strategic thinking.

Since World War II, when Ataturk’s Republic sided with the Allies as opposed to War World I when it sides with the Axis, Turkey has been an important ally for the United States. Turkey’s alliance was so vital that President Harry Truman and his Secretary of State George Marshall rushed through Congress an economic aid package to combat a communist insurgency. This support for Turkey [and Greece] bequeathed the Marshall Plan for Europe.

Turkey today is uniquely positioned to serve America’s interests. As a secular and democratic Muslim nation, and one currently governed by an Islamic party [AK party] Turkey serves as a democratization model for Muslim-majority nations who have yet to ride themselves of authoritarian. Although it may appear to be lofty and beyond the realm of realpolitik, such an image of Turkey and AK serves as an inspiration for the Arab world.

Turkey also sits between East and West, literally. It connect the Middle East, the Caucuses and Europe. As such, Turkey will play an increasingly prominent role in the region.

For starters, it may be influential in negotiating a peace with Israel and the Arabs. Unlike the cold peace Israel maintains with Egypt and Jordan. And one may add a young peace. Israel only signed an agreement with Jordan in 1994, and with Egypt 30 years ago after decades of war and mistrust. Besides exchange diplomats, the three nations trade little else.

In contrast, Turkey was one of the first nations to recognize Israel in 1949. Trade has reached billions of dollars, Israel contractors are hired by the Turkish army and a 1994 agreement allows Israeli fighter jets to train in Turkish skies. While few Jewish Israelis cross into Egypt or Jordan, 7% of the Israeli public visited Turkey in 2007. Due to the trust between the two nations, regardless of the recent diplomatic Davos spat, Turkey can negotiate between Israel and the Arabs. It maintains good relations with both sides and has been doing just that with Syria and Israel for the past two years.

Next to the Arabs, there is Iran. And here too Turkey is important. The United States is using initial Turkish mediation to restart relations with the Islamic Republic.

And then there is the matter of natural resources. As Putin’s Russia and its disputes with Ukraine worry European leaders about the dependence of a pipeline due East, Turkey offers the alternative of a Caucuses route not only for Europe but America as well.

And still Afghanistan. President Obama was reported to have pressured his counterpart President Abduallah Gul to send more Turkish troops for the NATO mission in that country. Turkey is a founding member of NATO and has 900 troops in Afghanistan.

President Obama’s sometimes personal address to the Turkish parliament has greatly helped defuse the tense relationship between American and Turkey in the last few years. The Turkish parliament angered the Bush administration when it refused to allow U.S. troops to open a second front against Iraq from Turkish territory.

The U.S. military refused to go after Kurdish separatist PKK rebel attacks originating from Iraq after the U.S. invasion. But with Obama’s election and the U.S. military in 2007 giving Turkey permission to launch attacks into Iraq in pursuit of PKK rebels, America’s favorable ratings in the country have come from the single digits to 50%.

To top it off, President Obama stated that it was American policy to support Turkey’s bid to join the European Union.

But there is one group that may not be happy in all of this: Armenian-Americans.

One cloud hung over the trip: his campaign pledge to call the mass killings of Ottoman Armenians in 1915 “a genocide”. In a press conference after his talks with Mr Gul, the American leader said that he had not changed his view of history. But, in a blow to the Armenian diaspora, that has long lobbied for a congressional bill to label the massacres as genocide, Mr Obama chose to be diplomatic this time around.

He suggested that Turkey’s recent efforts to reopen its border with Armenia, and to establish diplomatic ties with its neighbour, should not be overshadowed by America’s position on history. Turkey and Armenia are soon expected to sign a deal at the conclusion of months of talks brokered by Switzerland.

But as Turkey and Armenia reconcile, the Armenian diaspora may very well put to rest their effort to pass the resolution.

All in all, a successful trip.