WASHINGTON WILL SOON KNOW IF THE ROAD MAP SIGNED WITHOUT PRECONDITIONS OR NOT
PanARMENIAN.Net
05.05.2009 21:38 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Apparently, there was a combination of factors
resulted in not using by the U.S. President Barack Obama the word
Genocide in his April 24 address, said the chairman of the Board of
Trustees of the Armenian Genocide Museum of America and member of
the Trustees Board of the Armenian Assembly of America.
"With the benefit of time and conversations since April 24, it
is now clear that that there were a combination of factors and
different writers involved in the drafting process which led to
the actual statement issued by President Obama," Van Krikorian told
PanARMENIAN.Net.
According to him, the biggest factor was the Administration’s goal to
normalize relations between Armenia and Turkey. In this regard, we
will soon know whether the implicit rather than explicit use of the
Armenian Genocide term, as well as the reference to that diplomatic
process in the statement were risks worth taking.
"We obviously feel they did much more harm than good, and hindered
the cause of genocide prevention globally, as well as Turkish-Armenian
reconciliation," said Mr. Krikorian.
He emphasized, that in no more than six weeks, the Obama Administration
will need to reevaluate as we discover if the roadmap is indeed,
as reported, without preconditions and is subsequently signed by
both parties.
According to Van Krikorian, another factor not to be discounted is
that there are officials within US Administration and influential
lobbyists who disagree with the President’s record and the policy on
explicit use of the Armenian Genocide term. "Wittingly or unwittingly,
they are part of the genocide denial campaign which has been waged for
decades-some. Some of them are paid and some act with the expectation
of being paid in the future," he said.
According to him, as usual, the U.S. political context and the impact
of Turkish threats also played a role, especially in the wake of the
U.S. agenda with Turkey.
"At the same time, it seems that a pattern is developing where new
administrations try to solve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Even though
there is not supposed to be any preconditions or linkage between
Armenian-Turkish reconciliation and settlement of Nagorno Karabakh
conflict, there are parallel tracks of negotiations. Although despite
the statements of Barack Obama, the US administration did not intend
to harm Turkish civil society efforts to come to terms with their
history," Mr. Krikorian concluded.