…Right about then, America named a new ambassador to Turkey, Eric Edelman, a former adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney who to many Turks was the embodiment of what they saw as America's "my way or the highway" approach to Mideast policy. Edelman still remembers how his predecessor greeted him. "He told me, 'You're very lucky. You're arriving at the absolute nadir of the Turkish-American relationship. Things can only go up from here,' " he says, before adding with a laugh: "That turned out to be not completely accurate." Edelman went on to be labeled "the worst U.S. ambassador in history" by pro-government Turkish newspaper columnists. (It's a title since bestowed on at least one of his successors.) Edelman remembers waiting weeks for meetings with Turkish leaders…
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