Armenian Assembly of America Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh country director Arpi Vartanian met with journalists at the “Tesaket” Press Club in Yerevan October 17, addressing issues including the upcoming US presidential election and Turkish-Armenian relations.

“Many of the Armenians, as far as I have heard, are more Obama supporters rather than McCain’s, not only because of his vision of the domestic problems, but also because of the genocide [recognition] issue,”as Obama has repeatedly mentioned the necessity to recognize the fact of the Genocide, said Vartanian.

As of the recent Armenian-Turkish rapprochement, the AAA country director underlined: “It was very interesting [Turkey’s] President Gul accepted President Sargsyan’s invitation and arrived in Armenia to watch the football match. I must say it was a very courageous step on the side of President Sargsyan. Its outcome can only be positive. Would Gul accept it or not, it [the step] was positive for Armenia as it showed the world Armenia is ready to normalize relations with our neighboring country.”

At the same time, Vartanian mentioned, it is hard to accept Turkey’s statement on its readiness to be a mediator at the Karabakh talks without reservations, as Turkey “is not that unbiased in that issue.”

Vartanian also mentioned that the Armenian Assembly of America and the US-based League of Women Voters have recently launched a joint project of supporting local non-governmental organizations in creating and maintaining NGO coalitions. The idea, she said, appeared last year, when a representative of the League of Women Voters was taking part in a conference hosted in Armenia. The communication with the local NGOs revealed then the clash of interests frequently creates a problem in keeping such coalitions ‘alive’.

Being also members of the League some of the Assembly members came up with an initiative to implement a project “to either introduce or to strengthen the skills of coalition making and finding ways of preserving them.”

The project is currently underway in Vayots Dzor involving NGOs from Vayots Dzor and Syunik provinces. The program has started in September and includes a 3-month training course for the NGO representatives.

The AAA country director (www.aaainc.org) also underlined the organization will not anyhow express any preference for any of the US presidential candidates, as the Assembly is: “a non-partisan organization and its registered status in the US does not allow it to openly express such an opinion.”