European foreign policy of the Barack Obama administration signal to the Muslim world and firmly anchor the country in Europe. The trip marked Obama's first visit to a Muslim majority country. Obama has asserted that a close relationship with a stable, democratic, Western-oriented Republic of Turkey is an important U.S. national interest. His administration declared that the U.S. will support the promotion of democracy, human rights, and freedom of expression in Turkey and support its efforts to join the European Union, which the president confirmed on his April visit. While Obama has gone on the record in the past as referring to the massacre of Armenians under the
First inauguration of Barack Obama Beermann suggested that while the courts would likely never even consider a challenge, he would still advise Obama to retake the oath if he were his lawyer since "the Constitution says what he's supposed to say." Although Robert Gibbs, White House press secretary, indicated at first that President Obama did not plan to retake the oath, Chief Justice Roberts agreed to re-administer the oath at the request of White House counsel Greg Craig. The second oath ceremony took place on the evening of January 21, 2009 in the Map Room of the White House before a small audience of presidential