I wanted to situate the library in
Michael Jackson paintings,Little Rock because I felt I owed it to my native state andbecause I thought the library should be in the heartland of America where people who didn’ttravel to Washington or New York would have direct access to it. The city of Little Rock, onthe initiative of Mayor Jim Dailey and city board member Dr. Dean Kumpuris, had offeredtwenty-seven acres of land along the Arkansas River in the old section of town, which wasbeing revitalized and was not far from the Old State
Decorative painting,Capitol, the scene of so many importantevents in my life.Beyond the library, I knew that I wanted to write a book about my life and the presidency andthat I would have to work hard for three or four years to pay my legal bills, buy our home—two homes, if Hillary won the Senate race—and put aside some money for her and Chelsea.Then I wanted to devote the rest of my life to public service. Jimmy Carter had made a realdifference in his post-presidential years, and I thought I could, too.In mid-month, on the day I left for a ten-day trip to Turkey, Greece, Italy, Bulgaria, andKosovo, I hailed Kofi Annan’s announcement that President Glafcos Clerides of Cyprus andTurkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash would begin “proximity talks” in New York in earlyDecember. Cyprus had received its independence from the UK in 1960. In 1974, the presidentof Cyprus, Archbishop Makarios, was deposed in a coup orchestrated by the Greek militaryregime. In response, the Turkish military sent troops to the island to protect the TurkishCypriots, dividing the country and creating a de facto Turkish enclave of independence in thenorth. Many Greeks in the north of Cyprus left their homes and moved south. The island hadbeen divided ever since, and tensions had remained high between Turkey and Greece. Greecewanted to end the Turkish military presence in
Group painting,Cyprus and find a resolution that would atleast allow the Greeks the possibility of returning to the north. I had tried for years to solvethe problem and hoped the secretary-general’s effort would succeed. It did not, and I wouldleave office disappointed that Cyprus remained an obstacle to Greek-Turkish reconciliationand to Turkey’s being fully embraced by Europe.We also finally reached agreement with the Republican leadership on three of my importantbudget priorities: funding the 100,000 new teachers, doubling the number of children in afterschoolprograms, and, at long last, paying our back dues to the United Nations. Somehow,Madeleine Albright and Dick Holbrooke had worked it out with Jesse Helms and the otherUN skeptics. It took Dick longer than making peace in Bosnia, but I’m not sure anyone elsecould have done it.Hillary, Chelsea, and I arrived in Turkey for a five-day visit, an unusually long stay. I wantedto support the Turks in the aftermath of two devastating earthquakes, and to encourage themto continue to work with the United States and Europe. Turkey was a NATO ally and washoping to be admitted to the European Union,
Abstract oil painting,a development I had been strongly supportingfor years. It was one of a handful of countries whose future course would have a large impacton the twenty-first?Ccentury world. If it could resolve the Cyprus problem with Greece, reachan accommodation with its restive and sometimes repressed Kurdish minority, and maintainits identity as a secular Muslim democracy, Turkey could be the West’s gateway to a newMiddle East. If peace in the Middle East fell victim to a rising tide of Islamic extremism, astable, democratic Turkey could be a bulwark against its spread into Europe.I was glad to see President Demirel again. He
Impressionism oil painting,was a large-minded man who wanted Turkey tobe a bridge between East and West. I made my pitch for that vision to Prime Minister BülentEcevit and to the Turkish Grand National Assembly, urging them to reject isolationism and709
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