U.S. DOCUMENTS REVEAL PRES. BUSH’S DUPLICITY ON THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
ARMENPRESS
NOVEMBER 22, 2010
YEREVAN
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 22, ARMENPRESS: In a highly informative book,
“Children of Armenia: A Forgotten Genocide and Century-long Struggle
for Justice,” Michael Bobelian has exposed important, but little
known facts about the long history of attempts to get the Armenian
Genocide recognized by the United States, Harut Sassounian publisher
of The California Courier writes.
One of Bobelian’s more notable revelations is the apparent
contradiction between Vice President George H. W. Bush senior’s promise
to the Armenian-American community to acknowledge the Genocide after
he is elected President and his administration’s agreement with Turkey
to block such an acknowledgment.
While running for President in 1988, Vice President George Bush
issued the following statement: “The United States must acknowledge
the attempted genocide of the Armenian people in the last years of
the Ottoman Empire, based on the testimony of survivors, scholars,
and indeed our own representatives at the time, if we are to ensure
that such horrors are not repeated.” Bush is the only Vice President
who has made such a pledge on the Armenian Genocide.
After assuming the presidency in January 1989, however, Pres. Bush
ignored his commitment on the Armenian Genocide, and actively tried
to persuade the U.S. Congress not to recognize it. Within months of
his election, Bush wrote to Senators Bob Dole and George Mitchell,
and Congressmen Tom Foley, Richard Michel, Richard Gephardt, Janet
Mullins, and Richard Lehman, informing them of his opposition to the
pending congressional resolution on the Armenian Genocide.
On April 20, 1990, Pres. Bush issued his only “Presidential Message”
on the occasion of “Armenian Remembrance Day,” without, however,
using the term “Armenian Genocide.” He spoke about “…the terrible
massacres suffered in 1915-1923 at the hands of the rulers of
the Ottoman Empire. The United States responded to the victims of
the crime against humanity by leading international diplomatic and
private relief efforts…. On this 75th anniversary of the massacres,
I wish to join with Armenians and all peoples in observing April 24,
1990 as a day of remembrance for the more than a million Armenian
people who were victims. I call upon all peoples to work to prevent
future acts of inhumanity against mankind, and my comments of June
1988 represent the depth of my feeling for the Armenian people and
the sufferings they have endured.”
Over the years, analysts have offered different explanations as to why
recent U.S. Presidents (except for Ronald Reagan) have not kept their
promises to recognize the Armenian Genocide. Bobelian revealed that
in 1987, a year before Vice President Bush made his promise to the
Armenian-American community, the United States and Turkey had signed
an extensive military and economic agreement, according to which the
American government pledged to oppose any “inappropriate actions,”
such as the pending congressional resolution on the Armenian Genocide.
During the official signing ceremony held at the State Department on
March 16, 1987, Secretary of State George Shultz and Turkish Foreign
Minister Vahit Halefoglu exchanged letters extending through December
1990 the bilateral Defense and Economic Cooperation Agreement that
had been in effect since March 29, 1980. According to this agreement,
the United States made a commitment to provide high levels of military
and economic support for Turkey. More significantly, Washington agreed
to “vigorously oppose inappropriate actions which would be harmful to
healthy U.S.-Turkish relations, to U.S.-Turkish military cooperation
or to our efforts to provide security assistance to Turkey based on
the needs of the Turkish Armed Forces.”
When the 1980 agreement expired in 1985, the Turkish government
cleverly dragged out the negotiations for its extension, while
escalating its demands from the United States. After a series of
diplomatic exchanges that lasted two full years, the Turkish side
succeeded in extracting more and more concessions from the U.S.,
including the commitment to block congressional resolutions on the
Armenian Genocide.
Vice President Bush must have known in 1988, when he made his
deceptive promise on the Armenian Genocide, that the United States
government had already signed an agreement with Turkey in 1987,
pledging to “vigorously oppose inappropriate actions” that would
damage U.S.-Turkish relations.
After Pres. Reagan’s Proclamation of April 22, 1981 and the two
House resolutions adopted in 1975 and 1984 acknowledging the Armenian
Genocide, the Turkish government had good reason to insist on language
in the 1987 agreement to block any further acknowledgments of the
Armenian Genocide.
The Turkish scheme worked! Breaking his pledge to the Armenian
community, Pres. Bush successfully lobbied the Senate in 1990 to
prevent the passage of a resolution on the Armenian Genocide.
From: A. Papazian