YEREVAN. – U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s visit to the South Caucasus region proves that even though the region is not the major priority for the United States, it is in the scope of U.S. interests, political scientist Alexander Markarov told Armenian News-NEWS.am.

According to him, Clinton’s visit first of all illustrated the level of Armenian-U.S. relations, which, after a period of cooling, are historically on their highest level.

“The form as well as the content of the visit prove that,” the expert stressed.

As the political scientist mentioned, during the visit several questions concerning Armenia’s current foreign policy agenda were touched upon. The main issues of discussion were the Karabakh conflict and the normalization of Armenian - Turkish relations. The United States showed how keen it is on the peaceful settlement of the Karabakh conflict and any Azerbaijani action other than peaceful approaches will be condemned.

Talking about the normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations, the expert assumes that Clinton stated everything very clear with the phrase ‘the ball is still in the Turkish side’. According to him, Washington continues to make efforts for the normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations.

“The USA will not let go of the idea and that is important,” he said.

Commenting on the notion that Clinton’s visit was a mere a routine, Alexander Markarov said that for routine visits the U.S. State Department have other figures rather than the Secretary of State.