When the White House makes travel arrangements for the US president, it likes to do so down to the minutest detail. A table put together with great care lists the daily meetings of the POTUS -- that is, the President of the United States -- with a down-to-the-minute precision, including arrival and departure times. Every morning, there is also a message of the day that needs to be agreed upon and tailored to the particular place being visited. For Obama's current trip to Europe, the series of stops was also very clearly planned out: first the G-20 meeting in London, followed by the NATO summit co-hosted by Germany and France, and then European Union-US consultations in Prague over the weekend. And, to top it off, there was to be a flight to Turkey for a visit on Monday and Tuesday.

That, of course, was before the whole charming plan was thrown out the window when the Turkish government decided it would try to torpedo efforts at the NATO summit to appoint Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen as the alliance's new head. The reason for Turkey's opposition lay with the belief that Fogh Rasmussen did not condemn strongly enough caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad  offensive to Muslims that were published in a leading Danish newspaper in 2005. And because appointing a new secretary-general requires the unanimous approval of all alliance members, the threat of a veto threatened to put a swift halt to the celebrations marking the alliance's 60th anniversary. It was only Barack Obama's telephone diplomacy -- which came in the form of a call to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan -- that solved the problem. In the end, the two agreed that Turkey would not blackball Fogh Rasmussen in return for reportedly gaining an important seat in the alliance and a pledge to start procedures to shut down the Danish television station Roj TV, which Turkey accuses of having ties to the Kurdish militant group PKK.

The fact is that the US president, at least in part, shares in Turkey's misgivings. This should be good news to his hosts, and Obama could use their goodwill. Turkey is a very important strategic partner for the US, a fact which already led presidents Clinton and Bush to give vocal support to Ankara's ambitions to join the EU. Although the country is predominantly Muslim, Washington also appreciates the fact that it is a secular and democratic country that can serve as a model for the Islamic world.

Another fact is that Turkey's army -- which alone has 1,200 soldiers stationed in Afghanistan -- is the second largest among those of NATO's member states. And, then, there is the Incirlik Air Base in southern Turkey, which serves as logistics hub for missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. There's also the fact that Turkey's proximity to the central-Asian countries that are rich in raw materials makes it an important transit hub in the energy supply.

Then, of course, there's the issue of Iran. Ankara nurtures strong ties with the country, meaning that Turkey could play a role in facilitating new diplomatic overtures between Washington and Tehran. Turkey's government has already helped to organize talks between high-level officials in Pakistan and Afghanistan and to negotiate a cease-fire in the Gaza conflict.

Obama's schedule for Monday in Turkey is packed with important symbolic gestures including a visit to the mausoleum of Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the modern Turkish state, a meeting with religious leaders, a speech before Turkey's parliament, and a visit to the famous Sultan Ahmed Mosque in Istanbul. On Tuesday, Obama will hold a town-hall-like meeting with Turkish youth that will also allow people to participate via the Internet and through video teleconferencing. According to poll figures, more than half of all Turks think Obama is the most trustworthy foreign statesman. But this fact did not stop thousands of Turks from holding protests before his arrival, where they chanted slogans like: "We don't want you."

This particular state visit is rife with touchy issues. America's reputation has suffered major damage in Turkey, particularly as a result of its disastrous invasion of Iraq. When Obama was elected president, polls indicated that only 9 percent of Turkey's population approved of Washington's policies. America's efforts to aid Turkey's ambition to become part of the EU have impressed few Turks, particularly since progress has been so sluggish.

Still, Turkey's role as a middleman in the Middle East conflict does have certain limits. For example, in January, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's anger over Israel's invasion of Gaza led him to storm off the stage  during a discussion with Israeli President Shimon Peres held at the meetings of the World Economic Forum in Davos. Upon returning home, he was promptly given a hero's welcome.

At the same time, Turkey has no desire to diminish its role as a builder of bridges between East and West. "Obama should treat Turkey as more than a Muslim country," says Soner Cagaptay, an expert on Turkey at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. As he sees it, it was a good idea for Obama to visit Turkey right after attending meetings with NATO and EU representatives as a way of underscoring the country's close ties with the West.

The Touchiest of Topics: Armenia

The touchiest topic for the president will relate to how he speaks about the Armenian Genocide, when hundreds of thousands of Armenians were massacred in 1915 during the last days of the Ottoman Empire. Even today, the majority of Turks refuse to recognize these events as genocide. During his presidential campaign, Obama pledged to work toward having these deaths recognized as being part of a genocide. As part of his team in the White House, Obama employs a number of experts like Samantha Power, who won a Pulitzer Prize for writing a book on America's responses to episodes of genocide -- including that of the Armenians. During this period, Obama also has to be careful not to upset influential Armenian-American groups. But Turkey's rhetoric shows no signs of abating, and Erdogan just recently repeated his reference to the "so-called genocide."