Obama, Erdogan discuss Armenian-Turkish relations

The White House Blog released the detailed report on the meeting between the U.S. President Barack Obama and Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

President Barack Obama expressed his continued desire to move forward with a strong US-Turkey partnership, said in the report. President Obama congratulated the Turkish Prime Minister on those steps that he has taken around the issue of normalizing Armenian-Turkish relations.

“I congratulated the Prime Minister on some courageous steps that he has taken around the issue of normalizing Turkish-Armenian relations, and encouraged him to continue to move forward along this path,” said Barack Obama.

President Obama stressed the enormous economic possibilities, highlighting trade ties between the U.S. and Turkey. He expressed a desire for Turkey’s support in curbing a nuclear program in Iran, and praised the Prime Minister for his country’s “outstanding” contributions to the US’ efforts in Afghanistan.

“I thanked Prime Minister Erdogan and the Turkish people for their outstanding contributions to stabilizing Afghanistan. We discussed our joint role in helping Iraq achieve the kind of independence and prosperity that I think has been advanced as a consequence of the election law finally being passed over the weekend.

“We discussed issues of regional peace, and I indicated to the Prime Minister how important it is to resolve the issue of Iran's nuclear capacity in a way that allows Iran to pursue peaceful nuclear energy but provides assurances that it will abide by international rules and norms, and I believe that Turkey can be an important player in trying to move Iran in that direction,” said the U.S. President.