STATEMENT ON ARMENIAN GENOCIDE BY US AMBASSADOR TO ARMENIA NOT
COORDINATED WITH US STATE DEPARTMENT

YEREVAN, MARCH 3. ARMINFO. The statement by US Ambassador to Armenia
John Evans that the Armenian massacres in Ottoman Turkey in early XX
can be qualified as genocide was his personal opinion and runs counter
to the US official policy on the issue, says a representative of the
US presidential administration in an interview to Radio Liberty.

Evans did not coordinate his statement with the US State Department.
Pres.Bush has qualified the 1915 events in Ottoman Turkey as one of
the most outrageous tragedies of XX and as a massacre of 1.5 mln
Armenians. Presidential opinion is always most weighty in the US
policy. Until Bush has changed his position on the issue no one can
empower an ambassador to make such a statement, says the official.

He says that Evans’ statement has made even more difficult
Armenian-Turkish rapprochement. When Turks are driven into a corner
they react very acutely. They can change their position on some
issues if one raises them consistently, purposefully and
persuasively. But pressure is not effective.