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General view of the current US embassy in Ankara, Turkish capital. In February 2018, the embassy street was renamed "Olive Branch", the name of the operation launched by Ankara against the Kurdish militia YPG supported by the United States. REUTERS / Umit Bektas
The release Friday, October 12th of the American pastor Andrew Brunson, after almost two years of detention in Turkey, should allow a warming of the very tense relations between Ankara and Washington. This did not prevent the mayor of Ankara, the Turkish capital, to rename this weekend the street in which will be located the future embassy of the United States. His name - "Malcolm X Avenue" - should not please US President Donald Trump at all.
With our correspondent in Istanbul, Anne Andlauer
The decision was made in the city council, but the idea really comes from the top of the state. The Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, had promised several months ago to give the name of Malcolm X to a place in Ankara. He had met last month in New York, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, the daughter of the controversial militant of the African-American cause.
The latter publicly opposed in 2016 the candidacy of Donald Trump to the White House, and the current President of the United States should moderately appreciate that his new embassy in Turkey, whose inauguration is scheduled for next year, be located "avenue Malcolm X".
While the recent release of US pastor Andrew Brunson would certainly ease the tension between Ankara and Washington, his imprisonment in Turkey was not, far from it, the only ground of contention between the two countries, which oppose in particular on US support for Kurdish forces in Syria.
In February, Ankara City Hall had already renamed a street along the current US embassy. This is now called "Olivier Rameau Avenue", named after the military offensive launched by Turkey against these Kurdish forces in Afrin.
→ (Re) read: Malcolm X: beyond masks and legends