US SEES RECENT ARMENIAN-TURKISH RECONCILIATION PROCESS AS ONE OF OBAMA’S ACHIEVEMENTS

PanARMENIAN.Net
01.05.2009 16:19 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The U.S. sees the recent opening of a reconciliation
process between Turkey and Armenia as one of the foreign-policy
achievements of President Barack Obama’s first 100 days in office, a
spokesman said Wednesday. "We’ve had, I think, important achievements
in terms of Armenia and Turkey’s reconciliation. And we’ll be looking
to encourage that as well," said Mike Hammer, spokesman for the
president’s National Security Council.

Hammer was asked to comment on achievements in terms of relations
with Turkey during and after Obama’s visit to Ankara and Istanbul in
early April.

"We think our visit to Turkey was important," the spokesman
said. "Turkey is an important strategic partner and ally, both within
NATO and in terms of how it engages with the greater Middle East. And
we felt that the visit went extremely well."

He said the United States now was looking forward to expanding its
partnership with Turkey and working with Ankara on issues of common
interest. "We believe that we’ve laid the foundation for a very
good opportunity to make significant progress," Hammer said. "So
it was important to the president to go to Turkey on his first trip
to Europe. And we hope again that we will have a very open dialogue
and exchange of views as we move forward," Hurriyet Daily News cited
Hammer as saying.