U.S. Democrat Dean Visits Armenia

8/19/2005 at 13:54
Vanadzor.com
by Emil Danielyan

Howard Dean, a former U.S. presidential hopeful who now heads the Democratic National Committee, began a two-day visit Armenia on Friday, meeting with President Robert Kocharian and other senior officials.

Official Armenian sources said his talks with President Robert Kocharian, parliament speaker Artur Baghdasarian and Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian focused on the current state of U.S.-Armenian relations, the situation in the South Caucasus and international efforts to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Armenia’s strained relations with Turkey, a key U.S. ally, were also on the agenda, they said.
[...]
[...] Dean, who nearly won the Democratic Party’s nomination in the last U.S. presidential election, told Baghdasarian and leaders of the Armenian parliament factions that “development of democracy is the only possibility of progress in Armenia” and that the U.S. has always been ready to support the process. [...].

Dean was also reported to note the Democratic Party’s “strong ties” with the influential Armenian-American community, saying that it will continue to support pro-Armenian resolutions in Congress.
[...]
[...] Dean himself had expressed a desire to visit Armenia as well as Georgia as part of his ongoing tour of Eastern Europe. The prominent Democrat also met on Friday with U.S. Ambassador to Armenia John Evans and is due to visit the Genocide Memorial in Yerevan on Saturday.

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.