ARMENIANS VOICE DISMAY TO OBAMA
Hurriyet
May 21 2009
Turkey
WASHINGTON – The Armenian National Committee of America sends a letter
to US President Barack Obama. The committee is upset over his decision
not to use the word genocide in a recent statement out of concern
for potentially derailing the Turkey-Armenia reconciliation process.
In a letter to U.S. President Barack Obama, the head of the largest
U.S. Armenian group expressed deep disappointment over Obama’s not
recognizing the 1915 killings of Armenians as "genocide," and urged
him to reverse his position.
Despite pledging during his election campaign to recognize the World
War I-era killings of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire as "genocide,"
Obama decided not to use the word in a written statement issued last
month on Armenian Remembrance Day. Obama made it clear that he did
not want to derail the reconciliation process underway between Turkey
and Armenia, which had a couple of days previously jointly announced
an agreement in principle to normalize their relations.
The president instead used the Armenian term "Meds Yeghern," meaning
"great catastrophe," but his choice of words did not satisfy
U.S. Armenians as the term lacks the legal ramifications of the
word genocide.
Genocide recognition is the top priority for the Armenian National
Committee of Armenia, or ANCA, which was encouraged by the position
Obama took as a presidential contender last year.
"I am writing on behalf of the Armenian National Committee of America
to voice the Armenian-American community’s profound disappointment
with your decision not to honor your pledge to recognize the Armenian
genocide," ANCA Chairman Ken Hachikian wrote in his May 18 letter
to Obama.
‘Inexcusable’
"In breaking your clearly stated and unambiguous commitment, you
bitterly disappointed all those who believed in your solemn word to
change a flawed U.S. policy on the Armenian genocide, a policy that
you yourself, in a letter you sent to your constituents last year,
sharply criticized as ‘inexcusable,’" Hachikian continued.
"Your broken pledge represents both a grave offense to
Armenian-Americans and a disservice to all Americans who understand
that our nation’s leadership in confronting genocide should never
be reduced to a political issue that can be traded away, retreated
from under pressure, or used to advance a political agenda of any
kind," he wrote. "The ongoing dialogue between Armenia and Turkey
should have no bearing on your willingness to speak the truth about
the Armenian genocide; our stand against all instances of genocide
should be unconditional."
Hachikian said the president should reverse his position, writing,
"I respectfully call upon you to act quickly to correct your stand
on the Armenian genocide by properly and immediately condemning and
commemorating this crime, and by working publicly toward the adoption
of the Armenian genocide resolution before the U.S. Congress."
The resolution pending in the House of Representatives was introduced
in March by a group of pro-Armenian lawmakers. It currently has the
backing of 125 lawmakers in the 435-seat legislative body.