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.