“U.S. President Barack Obama considers relationship with Turkey an important strategic partnership,” U.S. National Security Council Spokesman Mike Hammer told Turkish Weekly.

“The bilateral relationship with Turkey is the president's recognition that it's an important strategic partnership. Not only is Turkey a NATO ally, but it's an important country with great linkages into the Muslim world. We have been working with the Turkish government to advance that relationship and to work on a number of issues of common interest. We will talk about some issues where perhaps there are some differences of opinion, but I think overall the relationship is absolutely excellent,” the source quotes Hammer.

“In fact, there are more issues that we agree on than we disagree on. One that I would highlight where we're working together obviously is on Turkish-Armenian reconciliation and the efforts that are being put forward there. And we want to be supportive of that,” he outlined.

L.A.